Business is business.
You can either win at it, or be beaten at it.
And winning is more enjoyable.
There are waves.
There are good times when everyone wins, and then there are rough times when everyone loses.
When a market is rising, it’s easy.
When a market is falling, it’s easy to get swept along into the vortex.
And then there are times, when we think the seas are calm, and all of a sudden, we’re overtaken because of our own complacency.
And we are all guilty of complacency.
Of taking our eye off the ball.
In Australia, the Dental landscape is changing.
Is it changing where you are?
In Australia, an oversupply of local graduates, thanks to a dramatic increase in the number of Dental Schools, coupled with an increase in registration of overseas trained dentists, has now seen the proliferation of new dental practices in many places where they are not needed.
Established practices in those areas are now all of a sudden seeing new dental offices spring up in their town literally overnight.
And it’s like a wake up call that maybe we need to get back into gear.
Yes, the landscape changes.
The proliferation of corporate entities into the cottage industry of dentistry has also seen a realisation that the big boys are here to capture some of our “assumed” turf.
How dare they?
“How dare the corporates come into my town and start undercutting me?”
“How dare a new dentist set up some swanky new office full of new equipment and show me up?”
Have you heard these lines before?
When a new restaurant opens up in town, everybody in that town wants to know if that new restaurant serves good food?
And your patients will be wondering whether the new dentist in town, be it another small set up or be it a large corporate, is going to give them the same product or better than what you’ve been giving them?
What do you do?
The answer is simple
You need to keep reinventing yourself.
You need to keep finding ways of being better in business today than you were yesterday.
When I visited Chick-Fil-A headquarters in Atlanta at the start of the year I was pleasantly surprised when they told me that the day after they launch a new process, a new procedure, a new product, that they are looking out for ways of making that product, process or procedure better the very next day.
The very next day.
Not next year.
Not next month.
But the very next day.
And it’s this mindset that keeps them as an innovator, as a mover and a shaker in their industry.
What are you doing in your business to be a mover and a shaker?
What are you doing to reinvent your business to continually be adding value for your clients and patients?
What outcomes or results are you improving upon for your guests and patrons?
Because guess what?
If you’re not trying hard to keep your patients by reinventing yourself and your processes, you can bet there’ll be another dentist come along real quickly who’ll do just that same thing.
And in so doing, they’ll cherry pick off of your patient base a select number of patients that you didn’t even know were dissatisfied with you.
Or partly dissatisfied…
And along the way they will also be providing a clear and better alternative for those people in your town who may not have even decided whether or not to be your patient… but sure as eggs won’t ever get the opportunity to choose once the new kid on the block rides into town and offers them some flashy alternative?
So what can you do?
[And doing more courses on bone grafting may not be the right answer….]
Yeah sure, there will be patients who’ll need the advancements in procedures that you can go away and learn.
But as I’ve been saying…
“We do better fillings!”
is an acclamation that most likely will fall on deaf ears most of the time out there in the community.
What your patients and prospective patients are going to want to know is are you up with the latest…. in service…?
Is your phone always being answered, and answered well?
From 6:00am in the morning through to 10:30pm at night?
And on weekends?
Or does it simply just go through to an answering machine?
To leave a message….
And hopefully someone might phone them back…some day?
Are your patients and prospective patients able to make appointments online?
And not just leave a message in a box on your website so that someone maybe get’s back to them?
Rather, can they make a real appointment immediately just like Open Table does for dining out?
Is your social media social?
And current?
And are patients and potential patients able to get an immediate response via your Facebook page?
Or is that Facebook page just another black hole showing up your inadequacies?
Are your potential patients able to receive an initial offer to get them in the door that does NOT offend your existing loyal patients?
[Really, why should your loyal existing patients be subsidizing your new patients? Surely there has to be an easy to implement point of difference that your new patients can receive unconditionally?]
There are always opportunities.
You just need to know where to find them….
Sometimes they are obvious.
Most times they are obvious to others and not to you.
And I don’t mean they are obvious to your postman and your drinking buddies…
The postman and your drinking buddies should not be your business advisors…
But remember, if it has been done it can be done.
The answers are out there….
If you can’t work it out yourself, then don’t let the receding tide drag you under.
There is always a solution for those who seek it.
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Email me david@theUPE.com if you are interested in finding out who my clients are using to SMASH IT OUT OF THE PARK with online appointment scheduling….
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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
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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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