In my first article as Mentoris, we discussed the importance of body language in communication and how it can tell more about you than the words you use.
This month I want to explore feelings, how you make your patients feel is arguably more important than what you do for them. In order to deliver your amazing service, you need to be open and that means competing for customers. The image your business creates, will, in the end determine whether your practice thrives, muddles through or indeed does not make it.
Creating the right impression throughout the patient experience will make a difference to how your patients feel and as you know yourself, how someone makes you feel is often the difference between whether you become a raving fan of that business or whether it’s just, well, transactional.
One famous quote, which I never get tired of hearing is attributed to the celebrated American poet Maya Angelou: ‘I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.’
Car trouble
On a recent trip to the USA I had reason to hire a car. We booked it well in advance and went to pick it up from downtown. The clerk handed me the keys, told me the car was on level five of the parking lot and that a man named John would meet me there to show me the ropes. As I turned to leave, she was then nudged by her compatriot who said John was not around as he had gone to deliver a car. The clerk looked at me, apologised and asked me if I would mind going to the public car park next door to locate the car for myself and gave me a complimentary car park exit ticket.
When I found the car, it was dirty in and out and only had a quarter tank of fuel when it was meant to be full. I could not be bothered to go and complain as I needed to get away, so I just took time stamped photos and bided my time.
Sure enough the feedback questionnaire arrived in my inbox that very day to ask me about my experience. I pointed out the state of the car but most importantly, expressed how I felt being ‘abandoned’ to find the car for myself and how, once found, there were features and operations in the car which were not familiar to me which made me feel unsafe driving for the first few miles. I told them this made me feel frustrated, angry and let down.
Although once my complaints were elevated to management and financial compensation was generous, I still cannot fathom how someone could send me to find a rental car from the car park by myself.
In the round, my customer experience was excellent. Ten out of ten for everything (apart from the collection). The booking of the car had been smooth and easy, the car was an upgrade (although they either didn’t realise or didn’t feel it was worth telling me) and the return of the car was smooth and straightforward.
It is of course true that first impressions are important – and mine was. It is equally true that problems do happen and that we can resolve issues when things go awry, which happened. It is also true that the last impression needs to be good, which is was.
However, I don’t think anything will ever compensate me for the way I was made to feel in that car park. The point is that I ‘own’ how I feel, and nobody can change that or take that away from me. Feelings and emotions, both positive and negative, last much longer than facts and figures.
I will remember how I felt looking for that car long after I have forgotten the price I paid or indeed the partial refund I received.
So, what’s renting a car got to do with optical practice? Well there are some alarming similarities in that the journey starts with a booking process, has a product and service element to it, often a collection and there is the opportunity for repeat custom and to build a lasting customer relationship.
I was lucky enough to go across the Golden Gate Bridge during my visit and it got me thinking. Think of your practice journey as a suspension bridge, with a start and a finish. I am sure it is solid when the weather is fine and the traffic is smooth, but when the wind gets up and the traffic gets busy, where might it give way?
My challenge to you this month, as Mentoris, is for you to identify where the weaknesses are in your bridge, in terms of when it might make your patients feel less than valued. Find strategies and make changes to your journey so that you minimise as much as possible the chances of things going wrong.
Of course, it goes without saying that you need to ask each and every customer for their feedback. I don’t know if I will give the rental firm a second chance, but as at least they had the decency to ask, I may yet give them another opportunity to impress me.
Until next time.