Monday Morning Meeting: Seven Things Your Customer’s Won’t Tell You Unless You Ask – Your Competitors are Faster and Cheaper

Monday Morning Meeting: Seven Things Your Customer’s Won’t Tell You Unless You Ask – Your Competitors are Faster and Cheaper

Did you know that customer research has shown that 96% of people won’t take the time to complain to a business?  This means that only 4% of those who had a bad experience at your office will tell you about it. However, you better believe that those who didn’t complain to you will certainly be complaining to someone else….

It’s important to provide your patients with the opportunity to express their frustrations or disappointments. But it’s more important to listen to these complaints and to utilize this knowledge to improve future patients experiences. It’s all about increasing the positivity people!

Patients Won’t Complain to You That Your Competitors are Faster and Cheaper

Have you noticed that you’re gradually loosing patients? That loyal customers that you’ve seen for years are simply disappearing? Chances are you’ve got a competitor in the area that’s doing exactly what you do, just faster and cheaper than you do it! And what’s worse is that your patients won’t tell you that that’s why they’re leaving. They’ll just vanish…

This is a challenge for all businesses. Delivering faster, better, cheaper service while delivering the same results is difficult. However, it’s important to know that you’re being beat out by a competitor so that you can evaluate how you are doing things and look for ways to stay competitive.

What Can You Do?

These are tips we found that can help improve your office and customer interactions.

Host a Customer Focus Group

Customer focus groups interviews are a great way to hear specifics on what customers like, dislike and ideas for new products and services.

Customer Satisfaction Survey

Customer satisfaction surveys can provide the data to identify what is working and what needs to be adjusted on services and products.  It also provides correlations between what the customer values and their intent to continue using products and services.

Customer Comment Cards

Customer comment cards provide more immediate feedback from customers and can capture customer response while the experience is still fresh in the customer’s mind.  This is a great opportunity to identify those things that affected the immediate experience of the customer.

Customer Interactions

Relationships really are the name of the game and interacting with customers on a regular basis sends the message that you care and it makes them feel valued.  I don’t think I’ve ever dined in a nice restaurant without seeing the manager interacting and thanking customers for coming in and checking on their experience.

Service Recovery

Every organization should have a service recovery process that allows employees at all levels of the organization to fix customer problems. Great organizations do a good job of this and it pays off by creating a committed, loyal customer base.

Hearing customer complaints can be difficult, particularly when you and your employees are working so hard. However, until you can identify those things that the customer wants, and is willing to pay for, you are wasting your time.  Customers who share feedback with a business are gifting them with the information they need to provide the products and services that people are willing to pay for.

Learn More About Customer Service Here: http://thethrivingsmallbusiness.com/articles/7-things-most-customers-wont-complain-about/

Tuesday Tech Tip: Using Instagram in Your Office – Share Some Cuteness

Tuesday Tech Tip: Using Instagram in Your Office – Share Some Cuteness

If you aren’t familiar with Instagarm, allow us to enlighten you. Instagram is a free mobile sharing app with over 80 million users. Owned by Facebook, Instagram is a mobile app that allows users to share photos they take on their camera phones. It’s become a huge sensation and is definitely an easy way to get your brand out there.

You can download the Instagram app, here: http://instagram.com/

This is a use for Instagram that we believe is an easy and useful way to get your brand out there. And, photos you take for your Instagram account can also be shared on your social media platforms. So really, these are tips you can use anytime, anywhere…

Share Some Cuteness

It’s not all business in your office. Occassionally, someone will bring by their adorable baby or a new puppy or a great outfit. Feel free to share the cutness with your Instagram followers. Animals and babies are the social media payload, and there’s simply no denying the power of both in the social media world.

That’s it for this tip. Seriously it’s that easy. Cute babies or animals = social media win.

Monday Morning Meeting: Seven Things Your Customer’s Won’t Tell You Unless You Ask – What Others Say About You

Monday Morning Meeting: Seven Things Your Customer’s Won’t Tell You Unless You Ask – What Others Say About You

Did you know that customer research has shown that 96% of people won’t take the time to complain to a business?  This means that only 4% of those who had a bad experience at your office will tell you about it. However, you better believe that those who didn’t complain to you will certainly be complaining to someone else….

It’s important to provide your patients with the opportunity to express their frustrations or disappointments. But it’s more important to listen to these complaints and to utilize this knowledge to improve future patients experiences. It’s all about increasing the positivity people!

Patients Won’t Complain to You About What Others Are Saying

Chances are you’ve had a few patients come in the door and complain about their previous dentist. What if those patients are telling other dentists the same things about you? Or worse, posting their feelings on social media sites or on review boards?

If you don’t know that they’re annoyed, upset, or frustrated then chances are you won’t be able to completely satisfy a patient. And we know that they’ll turn around and complain somewhere or to someone. If you don’t give them a controlled place to vent their frustrations, you will have limited abilities to do damage control.

What Can You Do?

These are tips we found that can help improve your office and customer interactions.

Host a Customer Focus Group

Customer focus groups interviews are a great way to hear specifics on what customers like, dislike and ideas for new products and services.

Customer Satisfaction Survey

Customer satisfaction surveys can provide the data to identify what is working and what needs to be adjusted on services and products.  It also provides correlations between what the customer values and their intent to continue using products and services.

Customer Comment Cards

Customer comment cards provide more immediate feedback from customers and can capture customer response while the experience is still fresh in the customer’s mind.  This is a great opportunity to identify those things that affected the immediate experience of the customer.

Customer Interactions

Relationships really are the name of the game and interacting with customers on a regular basis sends the message that you care and it makes them feel valued.  I don’t think I’ve ever dined in a nice restaurant without seeing the manager interacting and thanking customers for coming in and checking on their experience.

Service Recovery

Every organization should have a service recovery process that allows employees at all levels of the organization to fix customer problems. Great organizations do a good job of this and it pays off by creating a committed, loyal customer base.

Hearing customer complaints can be difficult, particularly when you and your employees are working so hard. However, until you can identify those things that the customer wants, and is willing to pay for, you are wasting your time.  Customers who share feedback with a business are gifting them with the information they need to provide the products and services that people are willing to pay for.

Learn More About Customer Service Here: http://thethrivingsmallbusiness.com/articles/7-things-most-customers-wont-complain-about/

Tuesday Tech Tip: Using Instagram in Your Office – Introduce Us to Your Team

Tuesday Tech Tip: Using Instagram in Your Office – Introduce Us to Your Team

If you aren’t familiar with Instagarm, allow us to enlighten you. Instagram is a free mobile sharing app with over 80 million users. Owned by Facebook, Instagram is a mobile app that allows users to share photos they take on their camera phones. It’s become a huge sensation and is definitely an easy way to get your brand out there.

You can download the Instagram app, here: http://instagram.com/

This is a use for Instagram that we believe is an easy and useful way to get your brand out there. And, photos you take for your Instagram account can also be shared on your social media platforms. So really, these are tips you can use anytime, anywhere…

Introduce Us To Your Team

Humanize your office by introducing us to your team. After all, it’s your team of employees that make your office what it is. Spotlighted employees will enjoy the recognition and your Instagram followers will enjoy getting a chance to see the staff members behind your office that make things run smoothly.

Share a little information about the employee in the caption so that your followers can learn a little about what that person does and what they love about dentistry.

Monday Morning Meeting: Seven Things Your Customer’s Won’t Tell You Unless You Ask – Poor Systems

Monday Morning Meeting: Seven Things Your Customer’s Won’t Tell You Unless You Ask – Poor Systems

Did you know that customer research has shown that 96% of people won’t take the time to complain to a business?  This means that only 4% of those who had a bad experience at your office will tell you about it. However, you better believe that those who didn’t complain to you will certainly be complaining to someone else….

It’s important to provide your patients with the opportunity to express their frustrations or disappointments. But it’s more important to listen to these complaints and to utilize this knowledge to improve future patients experiences. It’s all about increasing the positivity people!

Patients Won’t Complain to You About Your Systems

Systems are what keeps our offices in order, on schedule, and on track. You probably set up your systems when you first started practicing and haven’t looked at them again. However, systems that we establish now may not always be as efficient later on. And unfortunately we very rarely step back and evaluate them so it’s hard for us to see where errors or flaws may be.

But your patients definitely see those issues and want to share this information with you. Customers will tolerate the system and procedures as they are if you’re a great dentist and they think it’s worth it. But as soon as you stop being worth it, they’re gone. It’s frustrating to do something that you know could be done more efficiently but most customers won’t tell you how difficult or annoying it is.

Give your customers the opportunity to explain how a process could work better and you can revolutionize their experience and maybe learn how to do something more easily or quickly!

What Can You Do?

These are tips we found that can help improve your office and customer interactions.

Host a Customer Focus Group

Customer focus groups interviews are a great way to hear specifics on what customers like, dislike and ideas for new products and services.

Customer Satisfaction Survey

Customer satisfaction surveys can provide the data to identify what is working and what needs to be adjusted on services and products.  It also provides correlations between what the customer values and their intent to continue using products and services.

Customer Comment Cards

Customer comment cards provide more immediate feedback from customers and can capture customer response while the experience is still fresh in the customer’s mind.  This is a great opportunity to identify those things that affected the immediate experience of the customer.

Customer Interactions

Relationships really are the name of the game and interacting with customers on a regular basis sends the message that you care and it makes them feel valued.  I don’t think I’ve ever dined in a nice restaurant without seeing the manager interacting and thanking customers for coming in and checking on their experience.

Service Recovery

Every organization should have a service recovery process that allows employees at all levels of the organization to fix customer problems. Great organizations do a good job of this and it pays off by creating a committed, loyal customer base.

Hearing customer complaints can be difficult, particularly when you and your employees are working so hard. However, until you can identify those things that the customer wants, and is willing to pay for, you are wasting your time.  Customers who share feedback with a business are gifting them with the information they need to provide the products and services that people are willing to pay for.

Learn More About Customer Service Here: http://thethrivingsmallbusiness.com/articles/7-things-most-customers-wont-complain-about/