Please activate JavaScript!
Please install Adobe Flash Player, click here for download
ePaper created 2018-02-16, 11:17:41 | version 1.38.0
| practice management survive the future In a recent blog post, I mentioned a presentation given at the London-based WIRED Retail symposium. There Westfield Labs Chief Operating Officer Antony Ritch gave an interesting insight into the future of shopping: “Shoppers don’t differentiate between on- line and offline. Omni channel is the only way that re- tailers can survive. As virtual reality, augmented real- ity and full-body scans of shoppers proliferate—and with Amazon launching bricks and mortar stores, the way forward is to act as matchmaker between cus- tomer and product in every environment. Shoppers always have their phones and 80 per cent of all phys- ical sales are influenced by the internet. Stores are a social environment where friends and family come out to enjoy a day of shopping, dining and entertain- ing. We see the digital world in the same manner.” When one considers this quotation alongside the conventional approach to the provision of dental customer service, there is much that will need to change in the next ten years. My belief is that disruption will be applied to the premises from which dentistry is delivered and the current model of reception, lounge, consultation room and surgery. The patient experience will change and the de- vice-toting, connected consumer will be at the centre of it. Something new this way comes, but as yet I am having trouble imagining what it will look like. Rule 2: Take the time to research, listen and plan There seem to be too many dental conferences, websites, publications and social channels. There are nowhere near enough hours in the day to stay abreast of what is happening in clinical dentistry and in busi- ness innovation. I have no miracle cure for informa- tion overload. If you are committed to your vocation, then you must prioritise that which will keep you ahead of the game and that will include attending, listening to, watching and reading the events, broad- casts and publications that will maintain your edge. This comes at a price and the need to manage your time very carefully to avoid burn-out. Maria Popova, creator of the excellent Brain Pickings weekly e-news- letter, reminds us that: “‘Of all ridiculous things, the most ridiculous seems to me, to be busy—to be a man who is brisk about his food and his work,’ Kierkegaard admonished in 1843 as he contemplated our greatest source of unhappiness. It’s a sobering sentiment against the backdrop of modern life, where the cult of busyness and productivity plays out as the chief drama of our existence—a drama we persistently lament as singular to our time. We reflexively blame on the Internet our corrosive compulsion for doing at the cost of being, forgetting that every technology is a symptom and not, or at least not at first, a cause of our desires and pathologies.” Rule 3: Have good conversations All problems exist in the absence of a good conver- sation. Many years ago, one of my original mentors advised me to establish a personal board of directors (PBD), defined as people whose opinion I trust and who have the opportunity to give me honest feedback without judgement. The only qualifications are trust, respect and mutual admiration. They do not have to be in the same business, country or demographic. My PBD has changed over the years as members have come and gone, but I still refer many of my ideas and strategies to them for a second opinion before I take risks. I often attend meetings with owners, managers and teams in which it is obvious to me that the main reason they have progressed so slowly is that they simply do not make the time available in the working calendar to stop and listen to each other. The chase for production becomes all-embracing, whether a unit of dental activity or a sales target, and there are never enough timeouts to take the pulse of the business and its people. The main characteristic of a Champions League dental business (if I may use that football metaphor) is the meeting schedule, which should be designed to ensure that verbal communication is the primary means by which information is shared. Here too is another way in which the independent can beat most big businesses. Benjamin Franklin is alleged to have said, “When you’re finished changing, you’re finished”. Focus on your patient experience, stay connected to innova- tion and stop to listen. Master those three habits and you will be able to take advantage of whatever the world plans to throw at us next. There is, of course, a 50 per cent chance that what I have just said is correct._ Editorial note: This article first appeared in Dental Tribune United Kingdom Edition 2/17. contact Chris Barrow is the founder of Coach Barrow consultancy practice. An active consultant, a trainer and a coach to the UK dental profession, he regularly contributes to the dental press, social media and online. Chris Barrow can be contacted at coachbarrow@me.com. 08 CAD/CAM 4 2017