I received an interesting email last week from my good friend Dr. Richard Madow… that was very thought provoking.
In part it read:
“Dear David Moffet,
Let’s say you owned a pizza parlour, and you thought it wasn’t quite reaching its potential. So…. you want to hire a pizza parlour consultant to help you get a bigger slice of the pie.
The first candidate is “The Pizza Guy.” He claims to have a business degree, and used to own a marketing company that did really well. When looking for a new business one day, he heard that many pizza parlours were poorly managed and could use his expertise. So he read up on the business, visited many pizza shops (yum!!), took out a great website URL, and boom….”The Pizza Guy” was born!
The second candidate was Sabatino Covollo, owner of Sabatino Consulting. Sabatino grew up in The Bronx and started working in a pizza shop at age sixteen. He trained under two renowned pizza chefs, and managed a top NYC shop for eight years. Then he moved to Charleston, SC where he turned a bankrupt pizzeria into a “cash cow” that became a landmark. Finally, with twenty-four years of experience in the pizza industry, he became a consultant and has successfully helped pizza shops all over the world. (Yes – this is actually all true!)
What’s the point? Whether it’s growing your dental practice or Googling something that will help your personal life, you’ll find that there are all kinds of experts out there. And due to social media, the amount of “self-proclaimed experts” is larger than ever.
So put it this way. If you were on the front lines of a war, who would you rather have in charge? Someone with twenty years of experience in the military who has been through several battles, or someone who has read a lot of Tom Clancy books? Getting advice is great – just make sure you get it from the right source!”
Dr. Richard then went on to sound this warning:
“If your dental practice is not EXACTLY where you want it to be, and you’re looking for some guidance, please be warned. The dental coaching and consulting business is full of landmines. People who think “a business is a business – a dental practice is no different!” Consultants who have never held a handpiece telling you how to diagnose periodontal disease. Non-dentists trying to pass themselves off as dentists by using confusing and misleading statements. And “revenue experts” who advise putting a crown on any tooth that has a three-surface restoration.”
Personally, for me, as a dental practice owner for twenty-eight years, and then in my second career as a dental coach for twelve years and growing, I’ve seen both sides of what Dr. Richard is saying here. [Actually, I’d still be a dentist and not a coach if arthritis in my hands had not cut short my clinical career]
Here’s my tip:
When you look for a coach, you do need to have someone who knows what they are doing, and knows that what they are doing works, and will work for you.
But even stuff that works for you, could be replaced by stuff that works better for you.
If I was a dental practice owner in Australia, and I wanted to improve my front office employee’s phone skills, and improve their New Patient numbers, and reduce their cancellations, I certainly would be looking to hire someone local who has worked in and performed that same role for a long time.
Not some theorist from overseas.
Dr. Richard is correct. Hiring a dentist who has run a successful dental practice to help you with your own practice is a perfect place to start.
However, looking outside of the industry for advice that can be used in the dental industry can also be prudent.
Some of the great Customer Service skills that I teach to dentists were things that I learned from observing travel and hospitality businesses, and then applying AND TESTING those ideas in my own dental practice to make sure they did indeed work.
You have three choices:
If you want to improve your dental business, there are three things that you could do…
- You could do nothing and HOPE that things change…
- You could try and figure things out on your own [I see a lot of dentists do this]… and from experience I know that that is the SLOW, PAINFUL WAY, and quite frankly, it is also WAY MORE EXPENSIVE…. or
- You can work with someone who’s already done what you’re wanting to do, and has been getting results for other dentists just like you for the past eleven years….
BUT… Since you are still reading this article NOW, my guess is that you want to avoid the PAIN of trial and error, and the PAIN of doing NOTHING…
And QUICKLY get results that you can see in your BANK ACCOUNT right away…
I can help. Email me drdavid@theUPE.com with the subject line: “Help me grow” and I’ll organise a time for a short chat.
*****
Need your phones monitored?
Are you concerned about the number of calls that are not being answered as best they can be?
You need Call Tracking Excellence.
For the cost of a less than one cleaning per week, you could have your phones being answered much much better….
Convert more calls into appointments…Click the link: http://www.calltrackingexcellence.com
Call Jayne on 1300 378 044 or email Jayne@theDPE.com for more details.
*****
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
*****
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