Dentaltown May 2016 - (Page 10)
howard speaks
column
Talking Monkeys, Reviews Gone
Wild, and Valuable Margins
What's the connection? Communication and dedication
Why do we get so frustrated by our families, our
staff, or a patient leaving a bad review?
When you go to the zoo, you're the only animal
in the place that has clothing on. You don't get mad
at the rhinoceros because he's standing there naked,
with his back facing you. You don't yell at him,
"Respect me! Turn around! Face me!" And when you
come home from work and your cat's been lying there
all day, you don't say, "You're a lazy cat. You haven't
cleaned anything!" You have no expectations for
these animals, so they never let you down.
So why have we raised these artificial expectations on what are, essentially, talking monkeys? But
we don't even call them "talking monkeys." We call
them humans, elevate them on pedestals ... and then
they inevitably let us down. Why do we put such
expectations on people, when most of the time we
don't even know who they are?
Tell it like it is
I see dentists upset because their overhead is
high, they're struggling ... and yet staff members still
expect a raise every year, based solely on the fact that
Earth made it around the sun. No matter if your overhead went up, and insurance companies paid you less.
How could your employees think that? Because
they're talking monkeys who don't know overhead-
you weren't transparent with your numbers, and
didn't show them your daily break-even point. They
didn't know that to have 50 percent
overhead you had to do $3,000
by noon, then go to lunch and do
another $3,000 in the afternoon.
If they don't know what the
break-even point is, when a root
canal patient cancels an 11 a.m.
appointment, your staff will sit
around the office for that hour,
then get ready for lunch like
usual. So if someone calls up with
a toothache around noon, there are no openings
because it's lunchtime. The office sits empty from 11
a.m. to 1 p.m.
But if everyone had known that the office had to
do $3,000 by lunch to pay the bills and that the 11
a.m. root canal had canceled, they'd have eaten their
lunches earlier, which would've given them time to
see that person who called about the toothache.
Rev up your reviews
Yelp and Google My Business reviews are about
to die, and they don't even know it yet. Facebook Live
will allow users to post videos, including reviews-
going live and uncensored is as easy as updating your
status, thanks to the new "broadcast" icon. Once
people go to Facebook video reviews, they're never
going back to Yelp, where someone might have a
good review of a place, but because they're a horrible
writer, readers can't figure it out.
With video reviews, if you can tell if the person
who left a bad review also happens to be crazy. I see
the talking monkey review. Before, if a crazy person
left you a bad review, you'd cough up blood clots
and want to sue, you're so mad. Now, if someone
Why do we put such expectations
on people, when most of the time
we don't even know who they are?
like that leaves a review, everyone won't take it seriously-they'll say, "Oh, he's just like my crazy uncle
that I only see at Thanksgiving and family reunions."
People will know crazy when they see crazy.
And if you've done something really well-the
patient is all excited and verklempt, and can't even
hold back the tears while she's leaving her video
review-people are going to see that and get choked
by Howard Farran, DDS, MBA, publisher, Dentaltown magazine
10
Continued on p. 12
MAY 2016 // dentaltown.com
http://www.dentaltown.com
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Dentaltown May 2016
On Dentaltown.com
HOWARD SPEAKS: Talking Monkeys, Reviews Gone Wild, and Valuable Margins
PROFESSIONAL COURTESY: A 5-Star Future?
Continuing Education Update
Industry News
Special-Needs Patients
3Shape TRIOS 3
The ABCs of Dental Ethics
Townie Meeting Recap
Is It Time to Be Conservative, or Progressive?
Balancing the Scale(r)s
A Dope Does a Startup
The Dental Laser’s Role in Managing Periodontal Disease
Do Good: A WHALE OF AN EFFORT
Do Good: HOW SMILES ON WINGS TOOK FLIGHT
Do Good: SERVING THOSE WHO HAVE SERVED
Do Good: BE A HERO, HONOR A HERO
Do Good: THIS WE’LL DEFEND
Do Good: PAYING IT FORWARD
Do Good: A BEACH IN WESTERN KENYA
Do Good: A GIANT EFFORT: HENRY SCHEIN CARES
Should I Stay or Should I Go Now?
Poll
New Products
Ad Index
You Should Know
Practice Solutions: Tokuyama Dental
Product Profi le: Planmeca
CONTINUING EDUCATION: Mill In or Send Out?
Dentally Incorrect
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