12 Nov 2020  •  Blog, Communication, COVID-19  •  7min read By  • Richard Scarborough

Why you need to step up your customer service – and how to do it

Richard Scarborough talks to business coach Ashley Latter about the impact of Coronavirus on the demands and needs of patients, and the increasing importance of providing exceptional customer service…

Richard: Is good customer service now more important than ever before?

Ashley: Yes, 100%. And the reason being is that we are going into a recession, which will probably be one of the deepest ones we’ve ever had. I’m old enough to have already gone through four, this will be the fifth one, and I have a feeling this one might last a while as well.

When things are tough and times are challenging, I think people become more demanding. They’re having to work a lot harder; they may have a cut in income or their business might not be doing as well as it should. So, if they are going to be spending their money, they want to make sure that they’re having an experience that’s really positive and memorable, so they can say, ‘Well, a difficult week, but Saturday night we had a really nice time’, for example.

Without a shadow of a doubt, developing a world-class customer culture within your dental practice is absolutely essential, more than ever before. Particularly as we are dealing with a challenging economy.

Richard: What does customer service look like in a post-lockdown world?

Ashley: I think it’s doing something that the patient didn’t expect. It may be something like a handwritten thank you card if they go ahead with treatment, join your practice or refer another patient to you.

It’s something that they will not only be pleasantly surprised by and remember, but it will also encourage them to talk to their friends, their relatives, people like them, about what you have done.

That’s what you want your clients to do, and that can only be good for your business.

Also, and this might sound like silly advice, but actually do what you said you’re going to do or ‘turn up when you said you were going to’. You would be amazed how important it actually is to your patient/customer.

Richard: What key things do you think practices could be doing to make sure that they’re delivering excellent customer service?

Ashley: I’ll give you an example of something that happened to me. I’m looking at possibly changing my CRM system. A company was recommended to me, I contacted them and we arranged a Zoom consultation. So far, so good.

The consultation starts and they did a bit of an introduction, and within one minute, the company representative says, “So tell me Mr Latter, what do you do for a living, what is your business?”

And I said to them, “Well, have you been to my website to have a look?” And she said, “No, I haven’t. So, tell me a bit about what you do.”

Within two minutes, I’d more or less decided that they were not the company for me because if you want to sell me a CRM system that’s going to help my marketing and my business, but you have not got a clue what I do before you’ve even jumped on the call, then you really have lost it.

Sometimes it comes down to just doing the basics so well that it creates an amazing, positive experience. If that conversation had started with ‘Hi, Mr Latter, I had a quick look at your website. And I noticed that you do training for dentists. How did you get involved with that? You’ve written three books, I’ve never come across anyone like you that does this marketplace before.’ Then she’s probably got me, because she’s made the experience incredible.

If you’ve got a Zoom consultation with a patient and your receptionist has already noted half a dozen details about them, it’s worthwhile mentioning that at the start of the call. For example, ‘Oh, I was chatting to Jenny and she mentioned you’re getting married next year, how are the arrangements going, where are you getting married?’ That will go a long way to building rapport, winning that patient over and making them feel really good about being under your care.

If you have patients coming to see you who are nervous, you could produce a short video, it doesn’t need to be longer than 90 seconds, that you could send to them in advance to say, ‘Look, this is what’s going to happen when you come in.’

You can even make it funny. One of my clients in St Annes has produced this 90 second video. And it was really funny. Doing something like that, which the client didn’t expect, will definitely stand you in good stead.

Richard: Is there anything that practices could be offering now in terms of extra services?

Ashley: Although we’re heading into a recession, there’s a bit of a mini-boom at the moment with clients who want Invisalign®, orthodontic treatments and implants.

It’s important to not only offer these treatments but also additional non-clinical services that make it easier for them to access them as well. For example, having a patient finance facility is certainly going to be a must. One of my clients has told me that they processed more patient finance applications in the six weeks since reopening after lockdown than in six months last year.

Also, consider your opening hours. There’s going to be a big demand for six-day – possibly seven-day – dentistry, or maybe late nights, so you might need to think about split shifts or bringing in additional dentists to meet demand and keep your patients satisfied.

Richard: Thank you for your time and your advice Ashley. As always, it’s been really helpful.
 About Richard:

Richard Scarborough is the Head of Medenta, a long-established provider of patient finance. He has seven years’ experience in dentistry, including running a group of 30 practices and being a former customer of Medenta, which gives him a first-hand understanding of our practices’ needs. Richard also has experience in supermarket management and is passionate about business planning and understanding the consumer.

Medenta offers some of the lowest subsidy rates in the market and is one of the few providers of finance solutions to also offer a comprehensive support service, including an online patient application portal and an e-learning suite. For more information call: 01691 684175, or visit: www.medenta.com.

About Ashley:

Ashley is one of the Dental Industry’s leading trainers and consultants, in the last 23 years over 15,500 delegates have taken Ashley’s Two Day Ethical Sales & Communication course in over 13 countries world-wide. This programme is legendary in the U.K. & Irish Dental World and is probably the most sought after programme in Dentistry today.

Ashley is the author of ‘Don’t Wait for the Tooth Fairy – How to Communicate effectively & create the Perfect Patient Journey‘ and ‘You are Worth it – Talk money with confidence & achieve the income your services deserve.‘ In short, he is excellent at helping dentists and their teams connect better with their patients, so that they can finally deliver the dentistry that they love to do and most importantly their patients want.

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