There are times when a business doesn’t know that the consumer knows what the consumer knows.

Well, not every consumer. But the savvy ones.

And there are a reasonable number of savvy, discernable consumers out there.

Sometimes the consumer knows how it should be, and sometimes the consumer doesn’t know what they don’t know.

And sometimes they do know.

And like I said, there are times when the business doesn’t know that the consumer knows that things could be being done a better way…

Is that how it is at your Dental Office?

Are you trying to pretend you know what you’re doing, but in reality, you really have very little idea exactly what you’re doing, and how what you’re doing compares to what your competition is doing?

I’m not talking clinical skills here.

I’m talking people skills.

Dealing with customers.

Are you dealing with your Dental customers like they’re in line at Los Angeles Airport or Sydney Airport Customs and Immigration?

Or are your customers’ visits to your Dental Office more like they are visiting a good old friend for the afternoon?

I just this month watched this difference played out by the one of the airlines.

And the difference was palpable.

Now we all know how much fun it is to fly Southwest?

And one of the reasons is because of how much fun the crew are while we’re on the flights.

And as you know I regularly fly the Pacific with Qantas, whose crew members do a really good job looking after their passengers. But I didn’t know how good a job the Qantas crew members were doing until I recently flew Emirates.

This month I flew Emirates with my family to Europe, from Sydney, via Dubai.

And although the service was professional, it was far, far from personable.

Truly.

On Emirates there appears to be no shortage of flight crew.

But on my flights the crew seemed to be so caught up in their processes, they forget about their customers.

Let me explain.

The business class cabin is a 1:2:1 across seating pattern.

And each seat has its own side table section. Alternately left and right down the aeroplane cabin.

So the middle two seats are alternately paired, if you get my picture?

So couples travelling together can sit side by side in the centre two seats. Every second row.

But the couples when seated in the centre seats apparently do not get served as couples.

In fact, the fact that they are couples seemed to be totally ignored.

On both our flights both parties of the couple are served by different crew, from opposite aisles. Without any regard to the fact that they are indeed a couple travelling together.

Through two meals and five servings.

And don’t get me started on the drinks services and the snack services.

It was like there was an invisible partition between my wife and I that would not allow food or beverages to pass through.

And if I could work out which flight attendant was serving each of us and why, I’d be a Mensa graduate.

There just seemed no rhyme or reason.

No method to their madness.

There just seemed no soul on Emirates.

It was purely “clinical” only.

With no heart.

No passion….

There was something missing….

Was there a “culture” missing?

A culture of Customer Service, as opposed to a culture of process?

On the second flight it was announced that they had flight crew from fifteen countries who were able to speak eighteen languages.

But could they speak the language of love?

I wasn’t feeling it….

So how are things in your Dental Office?

Are you like these two Emirates flights?

Are you just going through the motions of process and protocol rather than bothering to truly connect?

Or are you like Qantas, and truly relating to your customers.

Because customers do know the difference.

And at your Dental office your customers will vote with their hard earned dollars and go elsewhere if they feel there’s a lack of sincerity.

My family is due to return from the USA on this trip, with Emirates.

And I’ve got to say, I’m putting them on notice.

I need some repartee.

I’m done with clinical.

I need connection.

In Dentistry, I give connection.

Not sterile connection.

Not clinical connection.

But true connection.

If your patients are going to hand over their hard earned for your dentistry, in this day and age they want more than just dentistry.

More than just a filling.

They want true connection.

Give them no connection?

Then watch them walk to somewhere else….

******

As an aside, I’ve also had more connection on Virgin Atlantic, American, United, and Continental. And Southwest.

So it’s not a pro-Qantas thing.

It’s a connection thing…..

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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