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Dental Tribune Middle East & Africa Edition No. 5, 2015

44 Dental Tribune Middle East & Africa Edition | September-October 2015practice management THE BUSINESS OF DENTISTRY www.idem-singapore.com INTERNATIONAL DENTAL EXHIBITION AND MEETING APRIL 8 - 10, 2016 Suntec Singapore Convention & Exhibition Centre Held InEndorsed By In Cooperation WithSupported By Singapore Dental Association Co-organizer Ms. Stephanie Sim Tel: +65 6500 6723 Fax: +65 6296 2771 s.sim@koelnmesse.com.sg Visit us at V006, Passage 10/11 Now Open for Exhibition Applications, Sponsorship Opportunities Supporting Forums IDEM16 297x210mm Dental Tribune Middle East.ai 1 23/2/15 11:30 pm The Road Map to Customer Service By Dr. Ehab Heikal, Egypt G ood customer service is the lifeblood of any business. You can offer promotions and slash prices to bring in as many new customers as you want, but unless you can get some of those customers to come back, your business won’t be profitable for long. Good customer service is all about bringing customers back. And about sending them away happy – happy enough to pass positive feedback about your business along to others, who may then try the product or ser- vice you offer for themselves and in their turn become repeat customers. Ifyou’reagooddentistwithgood selling capabilities (able to sell your service well), then you can sell any service to anyone once. But it will be your approach to customer service that deter- mines whether or not you’ll ever be able to sell that person any- thing else. The essence of good customer service is forming a relationship with customers – a relationship that that individual customer feels that he would like to pursue. How do you go about form- ing such a relationship? By re- membering the one true secret of good customer service and acting accordingly; “You will be judged by what you do, not what you say.” If you truly want to have good customer service, all you have to do is ensure that your business consistently does these things: 1) Answer your phone. Get call forwarding, or a proper answering machine. Hire the right staff if to answer your calls. But make sure that someone is picking up the phone when someone calls your business. (Notice I say “someone”. People who call want to talk to a live person, not a “fake recorded ro- bot”). 2) Don’t make promises unless you WILL keep them. Not plan to keep them. You will keep them. Reliability is one of the keys to any good relation- ship, and good customer service is no exception. If you say, “Your new denture will be delivered on Tuesday”, make sure it is de- livered on Tuesday. Otherwise, don’t say it. The same rule ap- plies to client appointments, deadlines, etc. Think before you give any promise – because nothing annoys customers more than a broken one. And above all, DON’T over promise. Over whelming cus- tomers will lead to disappoint- ment if your service was de- livered at a slightly lower level than promised. Even though customers might have expected less than reality, yet your prom- ises increased their level of expectations. (See the chapter Quality & Standardization in the dental Office in my earlier book B&A for the Dental Profession, Second edition). 3) Listen to your customers. Is there anything more exas- perating than telling someone what you want or what your problem is and then discover- ing that that person hasn’t been paying attention and needs to have it explained again? From a customer’s point of view, I doubt it. Let your customer talk and show them that you are listen- ing by making the appropriate responses, such as suggesting how to solve the problem. 4) Deal with complaints. Noonelikeshearingcomplaints, and many of us have developed a reflex shrug, saying, “You can’t please all the people all the time”. Maybe not, but if you give the complaint your attention, you may be able to please this one person this one time - and position your business to reap the benefits of good customer service. 5) Be helpful - even if there’s no immediate profit in it. Upon my request, my travel agent arranged a limo to pick me up from the airport. Upon arrival, the driver did not have any receipts. He promised to send me one the following day. No one showed up. I called the travel agent asking them for the limo agency number. Only to discover that the travel agent gave me the number of a dif- ferent limo agency. However, the manager asked how could he help me, I explained the situation. Although it wasn’t his problem, yet he offered to send me a receipt. And he did. I have been their customer now for seven years. Not to mention how many new customers they have through me!! 6) Train your staff to be AL- WAYS helpful, courteous, and knowledgeable. Do it yourself or hire someone to train them. Talk to them about good customer service and what it is (and isn’t) regularly. Most importantly, give every member of your staff enough information and power to make those small customer-pleasing decisions, so he never has to say, “I don’t know, but so-and-so will be back at...” 7) Take the extra step. For instance, if someone walks into your clinic and asks you to help them find a good ortho- dontist or Psychiatrist for exam- ple, don’t just say, “Dr. X.” Lead the customer to him, give him phone number or address or even call Dr. X if you know him. Better yet, wait and see if he has questions about it, or further needs. Whatever the extra step may be, if you want to provide good customer service, take it. They may not say so to you, but people notice when people make an extra effort and will tell other people. 8) Throw in something extra. Whether it’s a free follow up, a coupon for a future discount, ad- ditional information on how to use the water pick, or a genuine smile, people love to get more than they thought they were get- ting. And don’t think that a ges- ture has to be large to be effec- tive. A small thing, could be so appreciated. If you apply these eight simple rules consistently, your busi- ness will become known for its good customer service. And the best part? The irony of good cus- tomer service is that over time it will bring in more new custom- ers than promotions and price slashing ever did! Dr. Ehab Heikal BDS.FICD.MBA.DBA (Practice Management consultant) eheikal@gmail.com Contact Information Tel: +6565006723 Fax: +6562962771 IDEM16 297x210mm Dental Tribune Middle East.ai 123/2/1511:30 pm

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