One of the bazaar things about dental practice ownership is that for some reason, new practice employees often arrive at the practice believing that they [the new employee] can do whatever they want, whenever they want, and that’s going to be ok?
Regardless of whether the practice has a clear mission statement, a clear vision statement, and a culture to live and to die for.
And this goes for all employment categories at the practice… rather than arrive at work and fit into the culture and the visions, these new employees for some reason believe that it’s their God given right to do what they want, because they’ve got skills, or habits, that they’ve acquired elsewhere. [they believe they have skills…]
Why should that be the case in dental practices?
You can’t start working at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel and use your scripts and protocols you learnt at the Hilton.
if you’re going to be working at the Ritz-Carlton, then you’re going to need to learn how to do things the Ritz-Carlton way.
And if you go to work at McDonalds, you can’t use your KFC scripts there…
But in dentistry, people that get hired believe for some reason that they can do whatever they want.
Yet the new employee’s name is never placed above the door to the dental office?
That’s right. The name over the door of the dental office is the name of the owner of the practice.
The thing is that the people who patronise that dental office [let’s call them customers] do so primarily because of the culture that that business has developed and is known for.
And if these customers did not agree with the culture that they see and feel at the dental practice, then they’d have left, and taken their patronage elsewhere.
Because as a customer, life is too short to be doing business with someone that you don’t like.
But like I said…
But like I said, it never ceases to amaze me that a new graduate dentist working under the banner of an established dental office believes that for some reason they are entitled to operate using their “own special style”, rather than learn the ways of that dental practice that have been successful in the past and are what the customers of that practice expect when they visit.
The reason for the disparity…
There are a few reasons for the disparity when we see an employee offering up a viewpoint or a behaviour that is at odds to the culture and visions of the practice:
- The new employee disagrees with the ways that the established practice has operated.
- The new employee does not understand the benefits that the recommended ways of behaviour have had for the practice and the team and the customers.
- The new employee is arrogant and narcissistic, and only believes in what they know. And is not open to new ideas.
Recently I heard about…
Recently I heard about an associate dentist who was conversing with a patient when the patient dropped a dressing they were holding to their face. And the dressing fell to the ground.
The associate dentist continued talking to the patient as if nothing had happened.
But at the same time, another practice employee who was present rushed to the patient, picked up the dressing from the floor and offered the patient a replacement dressing.
When asked later about this moment, the associate dentist said that they didn’t want to appear to be too “needy” and that they felt it was better to maintain a “professional aloofness” in situations like this.
Lord give me strength…
Everybody is entitled to their opinion.
And everybody is entitled to their opinion, but in this situation, the only opinion that matters is the opinion of the patient.
And if the patient feels that the associate dentist has ignored them and could have done better, then the associate dentist has created a BIG FAIL for themselves, and for the dental practice, that can never be undone [even with consideration of the actions of the nearby employee].
A friend of mine used to say:
“Opinions are like backsides. Everybody’s got one.”
But sometimes opinions can be “on the nose”.
And even when you have an opinion that is at odds to the consensus of “best practice”, your actions or lack of actions in those “crunch” situations can be just as damaging as the spoken word.
When James McManemon, General Manager of The Ritz-Carlton was asked:
“If you were starting a new business, any business, and wanted to make customer service your value proposition, what would you do first?”
His response was:
“The first thing I would do is create the Service Vision for the Company. Be crystal clear with what the company’s vision is, and be able to articulate that extremely well. Then I would hire talent based on that same belief, only adding employees that share those service values, and finally create the processes and training to achieve that Service Vision.”
As a business owner, if you follow this same principle as espoused by McManemon, and you stick to that principle and uphold its importance and relevance, your life as a business owner will be dramatically less difficult than those employers who allow new employees to come in and run roughshod over them.
As a business owner, as a practice owner, you must do this:
“Be crystal clear with what the company’s vision is, and be able to articulate that extremely well.”
No exceptions….
*************
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