We are excited to have this TIPisode presented by Andre Shirdan! He was on the podcast before!
Andre is an inspirational and motivational speaker, executive coach, and a certified trainer.
Since 1989, Andre has worked with thousands of practices helping to create systems for treatment planning, staff training, goal attainment, internal and external marketing, and computer systems integration.
Andre founded Systems Practice Management, Inc., a dental practice management, training and consulting firm. He created Building Blocks Scheduling, Countdown Confirmation, SELL Training and the PracticePar Analysis. He co-created the non-surgical periodontal protocol Stat-Ck.
Andre is best known for creating The CREW Process – a better way to define practice philosophy, bring consistency to treatment and gets the entire office in alignment. Practices working with Andre have found great personal success while getting to know his genuine, frank, and devilishly funny personality.
You can find more about Andre and the Crew Process at andreshirdan.com.
For your viewing pleasure this TIPisode has been transcribed:
Michelle Strange: A Tale of Two Hygienists presents this week’s TIPisode: Quick and easy tips to keep you up to date, and presented by the experts in the profession. Now, get ready for your unofficial TIPisode.
Andre Shirdan: Hello. This is Andre Shirdan of The CREW Process. I’m also the creator of the Eaglesoft Field Guide and the StatCk periodontal protocol. I’m joining the Tale of Two Hygienists today because I really wanted to talk to you about customer service issues that hygienists face every day as they build relationships with their patients.
Let me start by saying that I spent more than a decade in high-end couture sales and customer service training at a level of Disney, Ritz-Carlton, and Neiman Marcus before leaping into coaching, consulting, and lecturing in the dental field, which I’ve done for the last 30 years.
What I’d like to talk about specifically today is what I call “first contact.” Have you ever taken a moment to listen to how your patients are greeted on a first phone call? I do. I get to call offices all over the country. I get to talk to practices from Manhattan, New York, to Manhattan, Kansas, to Manhattan Beach, California. And there may be different accents, but there’s nothing worse than hearing this happen: “Dental office, please hold.” I know. It’s terrible, and we hear it all the time. But even worse is when an office spends time, energy, and money into building a brand and having that brand become sloppy.
We’ve also heard things like this: “Manhattan Beach Dental, may I help you?” Okay. Yeah, the words are there. Everything that was meant to be said was there, but it just got jumbled up in the time that the person took to get to delivery. So how about something like this: “Hello. Crew Dental, this is Andre. How may I make your smile brighter?” Now, I know a lot of people are groaning thinking “Ugh. I don’t want to say something like that. That’s a little hokey.” But behind it is the idea that it works. It really works.
So getting information from the patient should be what’s done in order to make for a better patient experience. I always like to look into other businesses when I think about terms like this. How about what Chick-fil-A would say about a customer experience? Their motto is — and I’m paraphrasing — “Our goal is that every customer on every visit will experience at least one element of going above and beyond the customer’s expectation.” Wouldn’t that be a great way to think about our patient interaction?
I understand that the phone is the most important tool in the practice. But recent studies have shown that 94 percent of our marketing budget is spent on persuading customers to call, but only 6 percent of our marketing budget goes towards knowing what to do when the phone actually rings. Over the next couple of episodes, my hope is that we can dig deeper into this idea and work on customer service in the dental practice.
I hope this was a big help. Please share this information with your crew. And if you have any questions, you can visit my website at www.thecrewprocess.com\hygiene where you can find my events page and maybe get a chance to come out and meet me in person. I’ll be looking forward to it.
Michelle Strange: We hope you enjoyed this week’s TIPisode. Be sure to reach out to our guest experts and let them know how helpful their tips were. Follow A Tale of Two Hygienists on Facebook, Instagram, and head over to ataleoftwohygienists.com and subscribe to our newsletter. You can also email us at ataleoftwohygienists@gmail.com, and keep listening for more awesome content from your unofficial dental hygiene podcast.
