Jayne and I celebrated her birthday this past weekend with our usual Saturday lunch out at our favourite Sydney restaurant.
When we lived in Sydney we used to make a day of it and have a driver take us to lunch and then bring us home, so that we could relax and enjoy the food and the wine we were being served.
Since we’ve moved out of Sydney, we still travel to the same restaurant, but we overnight it at a Sydney hotel to make sure that we get to the restaurant on time and we have no difficulties after our lunch.
On this weekend just gone, I wasn’t able to secure a room where we usually stay. The hotel was fully booked.
So I booked another hotel nearby, where we had stayed before several times.
The hotel that I booked this time is a larger hotel at the luxury end of the market.
Here are some interesting observations:
When it was time for us to leave the hotel after our stay, I phoned the concierge to organise to have our car brought up from valet parking. As we were travelling home, we had no deadline, so time was not an important factor.
Sadly, when I phoned internally to concierge, it seemed to me that my call had been directed to a service for incoming calls from outside the hotel. This is because my call went through to an on-hold service with a recorded message specifically addressing a caller who may not as yet ever stayed at this hotel.
I felt as though I was listening to this message for a very long time, as the loop repeated itself twice before my call was eventually answered.
When my call was answered, the young lady answering the phone sounded very exhausted, as if she had been answering the phones continuously for a very long period of time.
I felt so sorry for her.
I politely told her that I was checking out from the hotel, and I asked if she could organise for my car to be brought up from Valet parking.
The young lady very politely replied that she would do that for me. Her voice sounded so tired.
I thought to myself that this hotel obviously needed to have more people answering the internal phone calls during this busy time, so that hotel guests felt valued, and felt important.
The long delay that occurred before my call was answered sadly sent me a negative signal that my business with this hotel was not valued.
Secondly, in another unrelated observation, Jayne and I both remarked that for a luxury hotel, the toilet tissue provided was very thin and not of a luxury standard that you would expect from a luxury hotel.
You would assume that all hotel guests would be using the hotel room toilets, and therefore you would think that making that “visit” for the hotel guest as good as “visiting” at home or better? How difficult would it be for this hotel to lux up the toilet paper to a thick and very soft and comfortable ply? Wouldn’t that be an easy win in for the hotel to WOW their customers on their stay?
I’m not sure who decided that cheaper toilet tissue was OK for this hotel, but certainly, every guest would notice the lack of quality…
In your dental practice:
When the phone rings at your dental practice, are your phones being answered promptly?
When a caller phones your dental practice, you want that caller to believe that the person answering the phone has been looking forward to that caller’s call all day.
And when that caller phones, they need to be made to feel like the most important person on the planet.
Secondly, at your dental office, are you using top quality personal products to exude a level of luxury and excellence in your establishment?
Are your tissues of a fine standard that feel comfortable against your patients’ skins?
Are your dental bibs eight ply and large so that the patient feels protected by them, as well as feeling impressed by their thickness?
And are your soaps and personal care products of a high class standard?
Are your magazines and reading material in your client lounge of a high standard?
If you use “cheap” you will attract more “cheap”, and you will have patients who want more and expect more from you go looking elsewhere for the “more” that you’re not giving, that you could easily be giving.
The thing is, that working in a more luxurious pool is much more pleasant than working in a less luxurious pool.
Believe me, because I was able to do this.
I was able to build a dental practice for patients who wanted and expected more, in terms of service, and who were very grateful for the levels of service I was able to provide them.
Working with those patients was such a pleasure…
*************
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