You Can’t Photoshop a Bad Experience

Transcript performed by A.I. Please excuse the typos.

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answering your phones, not making people wait, calling them back quickly, making sure that what you’re conveying to your patient is clear. That, you know, here’s what we’re going to be doing for you, here’s the timeline, here’s the price. Always have care and concern. So listen to the person, show empathy, take thorough notes, make sure that you’re hearing what their wants and needs are.

00:31
This is Dental All-Stars, where we bring you the best in dentistry on marketing, management and training.

00:40
Welcome to Dental All-Stars. I’m Alex Nottingham, founder and CEO of All-Star Dental Academy. And with me is Heather Nottingham, the co-founder and VP of training. And our topic is, you can’t Photoshop a bad experience. Please welcome Heather. Hi, Alex. Hi, everybody. Thanks for having me. So I’m going to use this podcast as a venting session. Finally, it’s you venting for once and not me. I know, right?

01:08
So we’re going to look at good and bad customer service experiences. And like the title says, I thought it was kind of fun. You can’t Photoshop a bad experience because part of what we’re going to talk about is an experience with a photographer. We were going to look to hire for an event and how we relate it to dentistry. And then we can also, we also had a great hotel experience that I think also underscores something that can be applied to a dental practice. you’re a great storyteller. Tell me a little bit about.

01:38
this, we’ll talk about the photographers and then how does this relate to dentistry? And I think another point just to make is like being coaches, consultants, running All-Star for some of the years, like we pride ourselves on great customer service. And then we’re always looking at what other people are doing, even if they’re not in dentistry. It’s like, cause we provided a certain way, why aren’t they? Right? So I think you kind of look for your tribe out there and you’re, you know, we’re always like, well, they could do it this way, you know, so.

02:08
Tell me a little bit about that. And I mean, the photographer said that it’s so hard to find good customer service this day and age. It’s like, I don’t know what happened or where it went. But if you just make an effort and do, you know, a little bit, it doesn’t have to be that much. I mean, the ones that are going above and beyond obviously are doing amazing, but the standard is so low right now that you don’t have to like…

02:36
Exceed crazy expectations and do jump through all these hurdles You can just make the person feel special and important and it doesn’t take a lot of money to do that either So I think that’s like a key thing. So everything started off with the hotel experience We stayed at the Aqualina a couple weeks ago and I’ve heard rave reviews about it never been there before it just looked really nice and I thought gosh they have so many good reviews they have to be fake but

03:05
Sure enough, when we got there, it was such an amazing experience. From the minute you walk in, they give you like a water or tea or like a cocktail or whatever. so that’s like, you could do that in your dental practice. Now, obviously you don’t want to give people a cocktail before they come in for their teeth cleaning, but you can offer them a water or a tea or a coffee or something like that.

03:30
It’s just a nice touch. Even uh one of my offices that I go to, they always offer things like that. So it’s just really nice and it makes you feel special and welcome. And they immediately say that they’re going to escort you around the property to show you like a tour. So it was just nice. I mean, that doesn’t cost anything to have somebody show you personally show you around so you know where to find things. And they personally escort you to your room and they make sure you’re settled and situated.

03:59
And so imagine like you’re starting things off with that really wow experience. And it just sets the tone for the entire rest of the trip. It’s like, okay, it’s starting off well. Now I like these people know I’m happy. And so just, you know, with that, I was like expecting it to go downhill from there, but it didn’t just kept getting better. Like every little touch was amazing. Well, it, I mean, you found a good hotel and

04:27
We’ve stayed at some nice hotels and I, what I always say is like, if you’re going to be spending a good amount of money, you want a commiserate experience. that’s not always the case. with this hotel, what was remarkable was that tour. uh I mean, to have somebody dedicated to take everybody around. Like we went to the spa and the guy waited there to.

04:56
see what we’re up to, you know, to, to, for us to see, then brought us around to see the amenities and that is true. I mean, we have had people take you to your room, not someone who gave a tour. that extra 10 minutes that costs money and time and people, but it’s set things up so well. mean, also kind of smart because they want to make money at the spa, but it wasn’t safe. Yeah. the restaurants too, they’re showing you like, Oh, here’s the restaurant that we have. have this other restaurant. Here’s what they have there.

05:25
So it was done so tastefully. I think where we can apply to the office is take the time to have your treatment coordinator or a leader in your office to take a round and say, do people see the different parts of the office? What we offer the smile gallery, just to get acquainted and also providing the amenities that we have at the dental office. So I think we want to look at, obviously there are different levels of customer service. There’s uh

05:53
bad customer service. We can talk a little bit about that, there’s also like a baseline. Yeah, you know, hello, how are you? And a few things, but what’s the baseline and how do I go to that next level? This stood out. This was that plus one. There’s books on how do you create a raving fan experience? How do you get that plus one? That was at something different that just stuck with us. And we had so much goodwill towards the company that we looked at everything else in a positive light.

06:21
And this is also as law of reciprocity. When somebody goes outside uh more for you, you want to reciprocate. And this was a direct example. Oh, we were experiencing like, oh, we got to tell our doctors about this. This is a great experience. This is exactly how we were like, we have to plan an event here. Like, this is so nice. You want to give them money. They come every day, twice a day and bring bottled water and they like knock on your door at like,

06:46
not 830 or nine at night to bring, put like little slippers out. like, that’s just really cool and thoughtful. And like they leave you handwritten notes and they brought, you know, they bring things that they know that you would like. So again, these are things and one of our dentists, um, she had referenced a book. you remember what it was called? Was it unreasonable hospitality? And it talked about making these like,

07:12
you know, these experiences for people. And again, it doesn’t have to necessarily cost a lot of money. But like, if there’s something that you know, somebody really likes, like one of my friends who’s my, one of my doctors, she happens to love mermaids and she says she’s a mermaid. So for her birthday, I got her like a little like kit that says she’s a mermaid. And she was like, this is the best thing ever. So like it was, you know, you can find stuff like that on Amazon. doesn’t have to be like really expensive, but

07:42
It just shows that you’re thinking about the person and that they’re important and special. so, and thinking to an opposite experience in an eye doctor appointment that I went to, the assistant took me back to the operatory, but the entire time she had her back toward me, she was walking ahead. She didn’t talk to me. She didn’t show me around. And I’m thinking, this is like,

08:10
perfect opportunity of like, it’s like a missed opportunity where as she’s walking, she could be looking at me, she could be asking how my day is, she could be showing me the different rooms and saying, here’s the room where we do this, and here’s where we perform this eye surgery procedure. It’s like setting those things in mind. So those are just, you know, two contrasting experiences of what you could have. Taking the opportunity to utilize the time that you have with your

08:38
with your patients and maximizing it as much as you can. And I would encourage all listeners to look at other businesses and see what, what, know, how your experience is. Right. And then, and compare to your office and see how can you replicate some of this and how can you avoid some of the bad stuff that they’re, that they’re doing. Right. Does that make sense? Right. Yeah. So tell me about that. That’s the hotel experience. Tell me about the…

09:07
photography experience and how, cause it were- talking about the good one or the bad? Both. want to hear, tell me about the bad and then the good. So we were- And then also, and then we’ll apply to dentistry for sure and so on. me. Right. So we were looking first for a videographer for an event and I reached out to a couple of companies, but I reached out to one in particular that looked really good. You know, so it’s impressive. They have amazing-

09:35
work, it looks really good, they have decent reviews. But I reached out to them, filled out a web form, and I think it took about a week for them to get back to me. So that was strike number one. So, you know, whether a person is reaching out via like the email, or they’re filling out a contact form on your website, or they’re calling you or they’re leaving a voicemail after hours or whenever it is.

10:01
Quick response time is really important. In fact, most of the more successful businesses or most successful businesses are answering their phones during business hours. And so the fact that I would call repeatedly to this company and they wouldn’t pick up the phone, that’s difficult because if that’s the initial experience that you’re giving people, they’re like, okay, I’m not even a client yet and you’re not answering your phone.

10:31
How is it going to be when I break a tooth and I really need you or I have an emergency or I just need to call and make an appointment? And so that was the first kind of red flag. You have to answer your phones. Like it’s really important to answer your phones, especially during business hours because and having like, if you can’t answer your phone, have it go to like an answering service or have it go to

10:59
something, you know, or call them back as soon as you can. Some companies even have like, if you can’t answer the phone where if it goes to voicemail, it’ll still text the person or it’ll have the opportunity to like, you know, do another step or it’ll email them and say, Hey, sorry, we missed you. But slow response time. They took a week to get back to me. So that kind of bothered me and they’re not cheap. This is one of the most expensive videography companies that

11:28
because they’re good, they do have good quality work, so I’ll give them that. But it was that there was also unclear expectations as far as like what the deliverables were from their product. Like what do you actually get for what you’re spending? So when you’re treatment planning somebody, make sure that it’s clear, like what does the person get and when, right? Like what is the timeline? I was talking to a dentist the other day and he was saying that

11:57
He goes in, he treatment plans the person and then walks out. But then there’s a breakdown in communication from when he talks to the person to then what they’re discussing in the financial part of it. And then what is the follow up? And then they didn’t collect from the person. And then like a week or two later, they’re like, oh, the person’s coming in for their appointment. And he’s like, I didn’t even know that they scheduled.

12:24
So there’s like these different steps. So there has to be clear expectation of the timeframe, the deliverables. And the thing that really sealed it for me not wanting to work with this company is they basically quoted a price. So they were like, I told them exactly what I wanted and they quoted a price and then they said, oh, well, we forgot to add in an extra

12:54
you know, so much for a separate location. And I was like, okay, well, I told you it was going to be two different locations. And then they quoted the wrong price for the second location. And then they quoted the wrong amount of time for the second location. And then finally, when I said, well, I need three hours at this other location, not two, they said, well, then it’s going to be even more money. So this is like the third tack on of money that they’ve added.

13:22
And so every time that happens, the trust just keeps getting so it’s like didn’t answer their phone. Trust diminished. They’re not, you know, they’re not going to be there for me as a business. Quoted wrong price. Trust diminished. Misquoted in their email. Trust diminished. So you see how important the communication is when they’re dealing with it could, you you could have the best verbiage and process and treatment plan as the doctor.

13:51
But if your team isn’t in line with that and they’re misquoting things or, you know, it’s like a cluster of nobody knows what’s going on, then every time that happens, you diminish the trust more. And some people have more patience than others, but some people, like you do a one time and they’re out. They’re like, no, this, you know, you don’t know what you’re doing. I’m not going there.

14:19
I had a dermatology practice that I went to that doctor was great. Amazing doctor, nice, very knowledgeable, very educated, but the team could not communicate properly in terms of like who was doing what and when and like, oh, you have to talk to this person about that. No, you have to talk to that person. And it’s at the end of the day, I’m like, I can’t spend my money with you because I don’t trust that you’re going to do the right thing. like, you know, and so

14:49
those were all the factors that contributed to us deciding not to work with this company. And, you know, and they weren’t even nice. So that was another thing is like if they were nice and it was a mistake, then okay, like, but they weren’t even nice about it. They were very much like, well, you know, we’re just the best of the best. And so it was very much like egotistical. We’re the best of the best. And so not everybody is going to be as expensive as we are.

15:19
And for me, it’s like, don’t mind paying the money. I was going to pay the money, but not if I don’t feel like I’m getting the value. And so they just completely lost, like they lost faith in me as a client. And so, you know, that was a good experience of what not to do. And it’s like, you know, your treatment planning, you can’t just be like, here’s your treatment plan. It’s, you know, X amount of dollars.

15:44
And then later, you know, of course I understand there are things that happen that come up that you can’t foresee. But if it’s all the time where it’s like, oh, oops, we forgot to add that in, you know, we didn’t know about this, or we’re going to start working on your tooth, but now we’re going to tell you the price of something else than what you thought it’s going to be. You have to have a clearly defined deliverable and expectation before with the person. You don’t want to have surprises.

16:14
Well, you know, what I think about is that in this case of the photographer, the videographer, I mean, is that, yeah, that’s what I was, that’s what I meant. Yeah. So the videographer, the, do have good work for sure. And that can be analogous to a dental office that you’re really great at what you do. your clinical skills are off the chart and probably better than what we’re going talk about in the moment, the videographer, the other videographer.

16:45
But people are not going to be making a decision. They have to weigh it like, okay, this company or this dentist is more expensive, better quality perhaps, but bad customer service. Is that something that I’m going to want to go in? Or is this other good enough? I get a good result. I get a great experience. So we think that if we’re just great clinically, that that’s it. We can suffer on the customer service side and price ourselves out and ego.

17:14
That may work for some people, that you get some of that audience, but you’re gonna turn a lot of people away and erode your brand. And most of the dentists that we work with and see, they’re great clinicians, but they wanna maintain a great level of customer service. And people that are gonna spend money, regardless, they’re gonna wanna get value, they’re gonna wanna get experience. So the higher price ticket items,

17:40
most of them are gonna wanna be catered. And I think in this videography example, yeah, they had good quality, but they weren’t catering. They weren’t providing great customer service. wasn’t getting the value was not mixing. And it was, they were egoic, prima donnas. And it’s like, do I wanna work with that? And what we say at All-Star General Academy is that from the beginning, from your marketing to phone call conversion, which is what we teach, uh case acceptance and so on.

18:08
Every step of the way has to be a great experience. It has to be thoughtful because when that starts to break down, you erode trust. Uh, and then people don’t want to work with you. They don’t want to refer to you, but we want to have a great customer experience, patient experience, and then add onto it. Like we talked about with the hotel example that we really separate ourselves and we really, and we enjoy what we stand for and what we do. And I think that we can talk about all the steps, all we want.

18:37
But you as a leader of your practices, you have to make this a priority. And it’s got to be unrelenting. this videographer example, that was the owner. And that was what they believed. And that was how they’re going to work. ah It didn’t work for us. So tell me about the other and how the difference of the experience felt, for sure. Tell me about that one. for the… Are you talking about the other videographer? videographer, the one we’re going to go with.

19:05
Right. So after I got frustrated with the first one, I looked up, you know, other options in the area. It’s funny because I wasn’t finding any before, but then when you’re really motivated to find something, it appears. And so found another one and reached out. He immediately answered his phone, was so excited. Like when we talk about the greeting and welcoming, you know, doing the welcome as part of the greeting.

19:35
He was just like, oh, I’m so glad you called and thought of us for your special, you know, special day or for your special event. And he’s like, tell me all about, you know, tell me all about it. Tell me about what is your name. What is your son’s name? What is your, know, tell me about the event. Tell me about whatever it is. And so it’s like, that was the first thing is he cared. There was concern. He really wanted to understand what we were looking for. And so.

20:04
He truly was interested. He took notes. He, you know, talked about what, you know, he could do for us and how he, like, he said, I really want to be a part of your special day, you know, or the special event. And so that’s just really cool that, and, you know, I asked and I said, well, it’s, it’s six hours of time that you give, but, you know, we might need more time. He’s like, it’s, it’s okay. It doesn’t matter. Like, we’ll…

20:33
You know, we’ll be there as long as you need us to. We’re gonna, you know, we’re gonna give you X, Y, and Z. And even though the quality isn’t as it’s not like, I mean, it’s not bad, but it’s not, it wasn’t as good as the other one. I’m willing to overlook that because I want to work with a good person and a good organization that has my back and that has my family’s back and like giving money to this person.

21:02
And so you reward that in other people. so, yeah, and every time I text him, he responds right away. He, you know, he was fast, like when he said he was going to, we’ve worked with a couple different vendors where they promised a deadline where they were going to get something to you in terms of like a contract or an agreement, and they never send it at all. So it’s like, oh, we’re going to send you your case presentation or your treatment plan.

21:31
And then you just never send it. Like you should not have to have the person follow up and I won’t follow up if somebody forgets to send it to me that I take that as you are not responsible enough and organized enough to do it. You don’t want my business. How am I going to trust you to work on my teeth? Right. Right. And so whenever they say that I’m like, okay, that’s, that’s it. And when the companies that have good customer service,

21:59
the hotels, whatever it is, the businesses, when they say they’re gonna do something, they always, what is it? You over promise, under promise and over deliver. Under promise and over deliver. So if they say that I’m gonna have it to you by tomorrow, it’s like I’ve got it in an hour, right? So with this, and I thought about the dentist because

22:27
I remember reading, I know many of you are familiar with Paul Homily, uh years ago wrote a book about how when dentists are doing work, they’re thinking, wow, this has to be at this level for the patient to appreciate it. But sometimes like good is good enough. And I think sometimes we might do over-treatment or more bells and whistles that may not need it, but a lot of patients are happy. you know, my dad, right, is great clinician.

22:55
Right. He’s retired, but he has a little work here and there, but it, and I’m a family of, of, of doctors and I’m the lawyer, the black sheep. But the point is, is that they think just because I’m the best at clinically that that means a great result for business. And it isn’t always the case. could see dentists that or doctors are like, they are not, they’re not like, well, bad, but not even close to my level, but they’re giving all the patients. Cause they have a great share side matter. People want to be part of the part of it. And.

23:25
It’s good enough. They’re not looking at every micron. It’s like, Hey, I got white teeth. Thank you. They function. Most people that’s good. And even for restorative cases, if you have a great experience and some good marketing, don’t know if many patients could tell the difference of how perfect that veneer is. So customer service is key. Clinical, we know you guys are going to be great at it, but with separates businesses is great customer service.

23:53
and being mindful for your audience. And we also get to reflect in our business. We are all about customer service and our pricing is very competitive, probably on the lower side because we, not probably it is, it doesn’t mean it’s a lesser value, it just means we’re not gonna pump things in for our clients that they don’t need just to pat our pockets. We believe that.

24:16
You provide something affordable that that’s self-funding that they can stick with over time. They’re going to be lifelong clients and they’re going to refer and that’s a great business. Not what can I suck out of this person to get their money and get out? and so that, I think that summarizes some of, can tell people that are manipulating or trying to impress you and not, or whatever they have. And then you can tell people that really

24:43
care genuinely about what they do. They value customer service, not a desperation. It’s like, value, I have principles. And I think talking about, let’s kind of get some action steps for, you know, putting this all together, right? In terms of what dentists, what our listeners can take away. Right? So let me turn that to you. What will you kind of bring this all together? What can our listeners take away and applying where you can’t…

25:08
Photoshop a bad experience. How can we create a good experience and overcome some of these issues? Well, I wrote down a couple of things that stood out, you know, in terms of like the contrast, the things that I liked from the businesses that are doing it right. like immediate response time or a very fast response and follow up time is important for good customer service because, you know, answering your phones, not making people wait, calling them back quickly.

25:38
sending things sooner than you say you’re going to send them. So always making sure that there’s a follow up. Effective communication is another one. making sure that what you’re conveying to your patient is clear. That, you know, here’s what we’re going to be doing for you. Here’s the timeline. Here’s the price, right? Like, and then don’t add on to that later or say, oops, we forgot to do this or oops.

26:06
it’s, you know, now it’s different or whatever. Be, if you quote somebody, like I believe that if you are the one that quotes somebody incorrectly, you should stick to that. Like we’ve done it before at All-Star where we’ve misquoted something and I’m like, if we said it, we have to honor it. So make sure that you and your team are clear on what you’re, what you’re presenting to people. Always have care and concern. So listen to the person, show empathy.

26:36
take thorough notes, make sure that you’re hearing what their wants and needs are. So like if they call up, we’re not just going through a script of like, we take this insurance and not this insurance and here’s the price, but more like, tell me about your dental wants and needs, tell me how we can help you. So utilizing the great call process to make thorough notes, and then those notes are then passed on to the doctor.

27:04
and those notes are used then when we’re presenting the treatment so that it’s, you know, we’re following a process. So care and concern, listening empathy, and then making sure that it doesn’t matter if you’re really super cheap or affordable or top tier expensive. It doesn’t matter. What matters is are you providing value for what service that you’re offering? So that means that

27:33
Like, if they’re paying more, are they getting more? they getting better quality? Do you have more training? Are they getting a quick response time? Like, something has to, just like we were willing to pay more to stay in that hotel. Like, we’ve stayed in hotels before. We’re like, what did we pay for? Like, just the name on the hotel door, but like the service was so awful. The food wasn’t good. The service was bad.

28:00
But for this particular hotel, was worth the expense because they were like so helpful and so nice and like you just, was so relaxing and they were like, they go above and beyond to like make your stay just really nice and magical. so making sure that you do the same thing. If you charge more, justify that expense by backing it up with like, what are you doing to make it worth it? So that that person is like,

28:30
Wow, that was worth it and then some, right? So. Well, Heather, thank you so much. You’re so insightful and I love your action plan. You had notes ready to go exactly what to do. We love action steps. Oh, and a tour. A tour is good too. A tour. A tour as well. So thank you, Heather Nottingham, co-founder of Also Demol Academy. And of course, everybody remember to follow us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, all of them. We’re on social media, Instagram. Like it, share it.

28:59
Go into your friend’s phone and hit subscribe so we get all the points and share with your friends of course. Until next time, go out there and be an All Star.

29:15
We hope you enjoyed this episode of Dental All-Stars. Visit us online at AllStarDentalAcademy.com.