Technology can be a great thing.
But technology can also make us lazy….
The television remote control is a very convenient invention, but by jingo, by gees, by crikey, it certainly has made people lazy.
In the olden days, before television remote controls, when we needed to change television channels, we needed to get up off the couch and walk to the TV set and turn the knob on the set. Nowadays people just sit on the couch pressing buttons…
It’s the same with phones.
In the olden days, when we used to phone someone, a real person would answer the phone and greet us [the caller], and answer our question and help us.
Today, in the latest versions of automation, you can phone a business, and without the phone even ringing, your call is answered by a message and immediately placed on hold until a real person has the time availability to pick up and actually speak to you…
It’s become very impersonal…
As you know, we listen to recordings of incoming phone calls at our client’s dental practices.
Recently we heard a recorded call at one of our client’s practices where the caller went straight into the practice’s automated phone “system” and waited, and waited, and waited on hold for twelve long minutes before an actual employee answered the call in person… and the caller was doing was that they were phoning up to return a call from the dental practice to “confirm” their appointment for the following day…
That’s pretty ordinary customer service…
Even if you are manually answering all incoming phone calls and having to juggle and multi-task… it only takes a few seconds more to introduce yourself, and find out who is calling and find out the reason for their call.
And when you do, and when you make that personable connection, you can often save the caller the excruciating agony of being “parked” on hold and waiting, especially if the reason for their call is something so short and simple.
Dentistry is not a B2C business. [Business to Consumer]
It’s really a P2P business. People to people.
If you don’t treat your customers as people, and as individuals, and your business acts like a faceless organisation rather than like people working in a business, your business will always struggle.
The choices are simple.
Sometimes all your customers really want is good old fashioned customer service…
And those businesses that continue to give their customers good old fashioned customer service continue to thrive and survive, in all economies…
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Dr. David Moffet BDS FPFA CSP is a certified CX Experience coach. David works with his wife Jayne Bandy to help SME businesses improve their Customer Service Systems to create memorable World Class experiences for their valued clients and customers. Click here to find out how David and Jayne can help your business