Knock Your Socks Off Customer Service

ROSEMARYBRAY
Speaking, Training & Consulting to the Dental & Orthodontic Profession

The Northeastern Society of Orthodontists

2005 Annual Meeting

Presents a Lecture By

Rosemary Bray

Knock Your Socks Off Customer Service

Nordstromize Your Ortho Practice

November 12, 2005

Marriott Marquis Hotel ~ Times Square

New York City

2905 Platinum Place

Carlsbad, CA 92009
Tel/Fax 760.268.0760

Email : Rosemarybray@msn.com
Website : www.rosemarybray.com

Rosemary Bray ~ NESO New York ~ November ~ 2005

Not to be reproduced or copied
 Knock Your Socks Off Customer Service

CUSTOMER SERVICE has become a critical aspect of orthodontics. Years ago, a practice could
be considered successful merely by producing quality orthodontic care. Today the practice that
wants to set itself apart from the norm AND be successful - has to create an environment where
patients get knock-your-socks-off treatment, every day, from everyone, at every visit. There are so
many choices of offices where patients can go and even if your treatment is the BEST quality
available, if the patient does not LIKE YOU, they will choose another practice and sometimes,
unfortunately and sadly, forfeit quality clinical care in making that choice. How great when you can
be an office that delivers BOTH!

What does it mean to knock their socks off in an ortho office? Quite simply, it
means there is nothing you will not do to provide an extraordinary experience at
each and every contact with your office.

You will become obsessed with customer service, as Ken Blanchard tells us in Raving Fans.
Meeting their expectations used to be sufficient it worked well enough. Today the consumer is
more demanding, has more choices and demands more from us- the provider. Our goal must be to
create todays Raving Fans, not merely yesterdays satisfied patients.

Your customer service is everything your practice is and does. Yes, it is what you do; but even
more, it is who you are. How sad if your patients are only satisfied because their expectations are so
low or because no one else is doing better. Just having satisfied patients isnt enough anymore. If
you really want a booming practice, you have to create those Raving Fans.

The surest way to make patients fall in love with your office, come back for more and tell others
how wonderful you are, is to practice the and then some (ATS) principle. Its the willingness to go
that extra mile that separates the true champions from the also-rans. There are far too many also-
ran practices.

The customers expectations are the baseline, so you win and keep customers by exceeding their
expectations by surpassing the baseline.
Meet the expectations first give them what they want.
Exceed the expectations second only when you exceed the expectation will the
customer give you credit for exceptional service (ATS).
Promise less than you can deliver and then deliver more than you said you would. If
you promise more and dont deliver, you set yourself up for failure.
For your service to be extraordinary, knock your socks off quality, outrageous, and then some:
You must do things for your patients (your customers) that are:
Unnecessary Unexpected Undeserved

The Psych I Principle What gets rewarded, gets repeated, has been called The Greatest
Business Secret in the World by M. LeBoeuf in How to Win Customers & Keep Them for Life.
Rosemary Bray ~ NESO New York ~ November ~ 2005
Not to be reproduced or copied
 Knock Your Socks Off Customer Service

In our work environment:

When a patient visits, buys, phones and has contact, he/she expects certain consequences of
his actions.
His/her future behavior, whether he/she continues to buy, phone, and be our patient,
depends on those consequences.

The more the patient feels rewarded, the greater are the odds that he will continue to be our patient.
The less rewarded, the greater are the odds that he will be someone elses patient. When every office
interaction causes a patient to feel rewarded, validated, confident and pleased, the patient will
continue these interactions with us to further continue the positive feelings.

A few Knock Your Socks Off Customer Service providers that we all know are:
1.
2.
3.
4.
Every customer of the beauty salon, the gas station, the department store, the car dealership,
or of ours, expects three things to occur every time they do business with us:

1. Personal Interaction 2. Operational Excellence 3. Product Quality

How Do We Deliver this Great Customer Service?

Step 1 Conceive it Step 2 Believe it Step 3 Achieve it

1. Develop your customer service slogan (your vision, your mission statement). Saying we are no
worse than the competition will not suffice. Write it together as a team. Post it up. BE it.

2. Get your patients opinion. Send a patient satisfaction survey at least yearly (preferably twice a
year) and always to each new starting patient. Dont wait until the end to find out you could
have done something better all along.

3. Carefully select and heavily train your team. This is the hard part. Treat
them well and your happy employee will be your best source of advertising
and marketing. Be appreciative verbally first and foremost. All the slick
financial and marketing techniques in the world are no substitute for an
army of satisfied employees (or patients).
Rosemary Bray ~ NESO New York ~ November ~ 2005
Not to be reproduced or copied
 Knock Your Socks Off Customer Service
Remember: Progress is never the result of contented people.

The entire office must commit to exceptional service. Walk the talk.
Keep learning and growing go to meetings, buy tapes and books.
Promote yourselves internally brag, display what you do, teach your patients.
Take care of the whole person, not just the teeth (or the eyes, or the ears) of the
patients.
Communicate communicate communicate. (phone, written and face to face)
Be good listeners. That also means do not interrupt when your patients talk to you!

We have a short amount of time to impact someones life, and we can do it in any
number of ways:
A warm, real smile A rose sent to a home
A touch on the shoulder A gift certificate
A compassionate word A refund
A caring, personal note An empathetic ear
A compliment A follow-up phone call
A sincere thank you An apology

How Can We, The Worlds Greatest Practice,

Deliver Knock Your Socks Off Service?
1. Start with that initial phone call make it WOW polite, complete, efficient,
friendly, warm, unhurried, answer-filled, inviting

2. Confirm that initial visit the night before without confirming it. Again reinforce the WOW
the invitation, the great decision, the offices level of commitment to service and quality care.

3. When a patient has to wait in your office:

1. Tell them there is a wait. Why do we so often fail to do this?
2. Provide ample reading material all current and appropriate, daily newspaper
3. Give them books to read (cookbooks, Chicken Soup for the (Dental) Soul,
or nice travel books, etc.)
4. Have a comfortable reception room (not a waiting-for-an-eternity room).
Chairs that are plentiful and relaxing and in good repair
Environment that is comfortable, clean, temperature-controlled, and smells good
Toys for toddlers and games, videos, etc., for older kids
Water, teas, coffee, lemonade or juice on hot days
Bake cookies, serve bagels, have goodies
Contests, bulletin boards, staff pictures, photo albums
Balloons, stickers to waiting siblings and patients
Desk to draw at or do homework
Telephone for patients and parents private use

Rosemary Bray ~ NESO New York ~ November ~ 2005

Not to be reproduced or copied
 Knock Your Socks Off Customer Service

5. Be on the lookout for the dirty tray tables in your office

Physical environment (the dead moth, the dust, the brown leafed plant)
Furniture, equipment, walls, windows, in need of repair, etc.
Product technology, quality treatment
Team and/or Doctor image physical, communicative, personal

6. Know those Ten Deadly Sins of Customer Service and vow to eliminate them from your
office and your personal behavior.

7. Get total commitment from each team member not just involvement.

8. Reward team for outstanding performance not just monetarily, but verbally first and foremost.

9. Make every ortho deband the way you wanted your deband to be! Promise as a team to make
those special appointments truly special dont be afraid to lighten up! Make it FUN !

10. Take the attached Customer Service Quiz every six months and dont settle for anything but
improving scores.

11. Read the books recommended today, as well as any other positive material to assist you in
improving. Attend all meetings you can, pick other peoples brains while you are there and buy
tapes when not able to be there. Form study groups.

12. Network and brainstorm with others who are already doing what you want to be doing.
Ask colleagues, friends for their good opinions! Copy them! Its great to have role models
and mentors. Ask for assistance and ideas!

13. Vow to always give patients more service than they are paying for.

14. Make your initial exams an extraordinary experience. Be complete with the diagnosis,
treatment plan, records and discussion of finances. If you are not sure how to do this, hire
someone to teach you. Money spent to get patients to say yes is money very well spent.

15. Look great, be great, talk great, and perform great.

16. Keep a positive attitude in the office. Talk needs to be positive, regarding appropriate subjects,
and involving the patients at all times.

17. Dress for success in and out of the office. Clean, sharp, crisp, professional AND appropriate.

18. Promote yourselves both internally and externally with marketing ideas that show creativity,
passion, fun and personal interaction (give stickers, balloons, birthday cards, postcards, baby
cards, sympathy cards, bookmarkers, water bottles, Frisbees, tee shirts) whatever you are
comfortable with. Just do it!

Rosemary Bray ~ NESO New York ~ November ~ 2005

Not to be reproduced or copied
 Knock Your Socks Off Customer Service

19. Thank your patients every day for being your patients. They did have a choice to be anyones
patient and they chose you. They continue to have that choice every day.

20. Give the highest quality treatment at all times tell your patients that you are capable
and efficient and quality oriented! Then show them that you are, involve them in all
decisions.

21. Think like John Nordstrom, Sam Walton of Wal*Mart, Herb Kelleher of Southwest
Airlines and Walt Disney. Be visionary, creative, appreciative and thankful.

22. Talk to each other about what is going well and how you can improve. Review your Patient
Satisfaction Surveys at every team meeting. Ask each other for constant input. Share your own
personal great and not-so-great customer service stories. You will see what you do and do not
want in your business. Read Raving Fans (or an equivalent) every year and discuss it.

BE THE PROFESSIONAL OFFICE THAT IS OBSESSED WITH CUSTOMER SERVICE

NOT THE ONE THAT IS JUST THINKING ABOUT IT.

Survey Results on Why Customers Quit

2% die
3% move away **Which of these do we have **
4% develop other friendships any control over ???
9% leave for competition reasons
14% are dissatisfied with your product
68% quit because of the attitude or the indifference of someone who works there !!

It is important to do things right, but it is more important to do the right things.

It basically comes down to just this: If you can provide service that is better than your patient can
get anywhere else, they wont go anywhere else. Outstanding service does not come from policy
manuals. It comes from people who care and from a culture that encourages and models that type
of attitude.

Would YOU be willing to Its your orthodontist,

Charlie. He says its been
go to this level for your five years since your last
patients? retainer check

How much And Then Some

would YOU provide?

Are you OBSESSED with Outstanding Customer Service?

Rosemary Bray ~ NESO New York ~ November ~ 2005
Not to be reproduced or copied
 Knock Your Socks Off Customer Service

The Ten Deadly Sins of Customer Service

1. I dont know 6. You dont know anything

2. I dont care 7. We dont want your kind here
3. I cant be bothered 8. Dont come back
4. I dont like you 9. Im right, youre wrong
5. I know it all 10. Hurry upnow wait!

Have You Been Guilty?

John Nordstrom said -

The only difference between stores, is how we treat our customers. If so, is the only
difference between you and other orthodontic treatment providers how you treat the
customer (patient) ?

He also said -
You will never be criticized for taking care of a customer; you will only be criticized
for NOT taking care of the customer. Is this true in your practice? Hope so.

Sam Walton taught his new employees

If we are just good to people, we will have NO limits. Look at that
business today.

Walt Disney proclaimed - that at Disneyland, we have our hearts in our

business and our business in our hearts. Do you?

And always remember that No patient can ever be worse than

NO PATIENT!
Yo, Doc!
Waaassuuup??

Rosemary Bray ~ NESO New York ~ November ~ 2005

Not to be reproduced or copied
 Knock Your Socks Off Customer Service

Suggested Reading and Tape Listening

To Achieve a Level of Knock Your Socks off Service for Our Patients

How to Win Friends and Influence People Dale Carnegie

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People Stephen Covey
Raving Fans and Gung Ho! Ken Blanchard
Selling the Invisible, The Invisible Touch, or What Clients Love Harry Beckwith
Relationship Selling Jim Cathcart
How To Win Customers and Keep Them For Life Michael LeBoeuf
1001 Ways to Energize Employees (or the others he wrote) Bob Nelson
Over the Top Zig Ziglar
Positively Outrageous Service or Outrageous! T. Scott Gross
Nuts! Kevin Freiberg
Fabled Service Betsy Sanders
The Nordstrom Way Spector/McCarthy
Delivering Knock Your Socks Off Service Anderson/Zemke
144 Ways to Walk the Talk Harvey/Lucia
Fish !, Fish Tales, Fish Sticks, Fish For Life Stephen Lundin, PhD
Pushing the Envelope Harvey MacKay
The Purple Cow Seth Godin
Customer Satisfaction is Worthless-Customer Loyalty is Priceless Jeff Gitomer

Thank you for your participation today, for your

commitment to excellence and for your dedication to both
your profession and your patients!

Rosemary Bray ~ NESO New York ~ November ~ 2005

Not to be reproduced or copied
 Knock Your Socks Off Customer Service

Our Ortho Practice Customer Service Quiz

Score each of the following questions from 1 to 10, with 10 being all the time, without fail, consistently, 100%.
1. Every day, in some way, I ask for the referral of a new patient. ______

2. I send at least one handwritten note each day to a patient or parent. ______

3. Every day I give out at least one brochure or a handout to explain

a program or service which my office provides. ______

4. My conversation in the office focuses entirely on the patient and not on me. ______

5. Every day I tell at least one patient how terrific our treatment or services are. ______
Bragging is easy for me because I believe it!

6. My daily communication with my co-workers is positive and upbeat,

and without gossip - especially in front of our patients. ______

7. I believe that compassion is a major element in customer service and I show it daily in
some way (i.e., a hug, a listening ear, a follow up phone call, a personal note sent, etc). ______

8. Every day I do something to improve either myself, or my relationship with my office. ______

9. I go to every possible continuing education meeting I can get to, regardless of the subject ______
If I cant be there, I will try to order the tapes.

10. I have bought, read and absorbed at least one self help or professional book or tape in
the last six months. It was called ___________________________________ ______

11. I compliment my teammates or my doctor regularly to their faces and to my patients. ______

12. I give genuine, sincere compliments to all my patients/parents without fail. ______

13. I believe that I will get everything in life that I want if I just help enough other
people get what they want. (Whos life motto is that?) ______

14. I truly feel passionate about my profession, my work and my practice. ______

15. I treat each of our patients as if he or she was the ONLY patient we have. ______
150 to 135 points = Excellent Nordstrom Practice !!J
134 to 120 points = Very Good Service Keep It Up!!
119 to 100 points = Good But Lots of Room To Improve
99 to 80 points = I Sure Need To Get Better
Below 79 points = Maybe I Need To Get Another Job! ( We Hope not!)

Rosemary Bray ~ NESO New York ~ November ~ 2005

Not to be reproduced or copied