WHY MY SON DOESN’T LIKE MY OFFICE (and what we can all learn from it)

Yesterday my oldest son Reid, who's almost 4, had his teeth cleaned in my office for the first time by one of my hygienists. Even he was nervous (son of a dentist...sheesh), but everything went well...until he told me later that night:

"Daddy, I don't like your office."

I was stunned. Here's my own son, my pride and joy, who told me that he wants to be dentist when he grows up. And he says he doesn't like my office. I had to get to the bottom of this.

"Why not, Reid?" I asked.

His answer surprised me, and it speaks to 2 BIG LESSONS that I want to reveal here. He said:

"Because you don't have Superman and Spiderman and Batman toothbrushes. I don't like Winnie the Pooh toothbrushes."

Hmmmm, I thought. We just bought 12 DOZEN Winnie the Pooh, Tigger, etc. brushes! No one asked for them specifically...we just ordered 'em. I know other kids will love them, but one of my kids doesn't, and that's important.

What are the BIG PICTURE lessons?

Lesson #1- Reid made a GENERAL judgement about my whole practice based on just one little SEEMINGLY insignificant detail!

Guess what? Many of your patients are doing the same thing, every day. They will decide whether to do more or less business with you based on "little" things that mean a lot TO THEM. How much you pay attention to that will go a long way toward determining how successful you are at:

- KEEPING them for the long term
- getting REFERRALS from them

2- Lesson #2- Reid didn't GET what he wanted...because we never ASKED him what he wanted! Thus his "opinion" of us was unfavorable.

How often do you PREVENT your patients from getting what they want? Do you even know what they REALLY want? And WHY they want it? Aye, there's the rub!

You see, it's MOST important to not only find out what our patients want...but to also learn WHY they want it. Usually there's an EMOTIONAL reason behind them wanting a certain service. Cater to their prferences (the more the better), and you'll have patients FOR LIFE! Better yet, they'll REFER their friends, family, neighbors, and coworkers to you over and over again!

So, ASK your patients what's most important to them with regard to your practice. Why did they choose you? What do they like about your office? What would they rather see more of, less of, or just different?

Find the answers to those questions, make the appropriate adjustments, and watch your practice SOAR ever higher!

All my best,
Chris

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