DentaltownUK August 2017 - 10

howard speaks
column

Drive-Thrus and Dentistry
Here's why service and communication matter in both
Fast-food restaurants and dentistry have a lot in
common. Pull up to order at a McDonald's drive-thru,
and your first encounter will be via speakerphone with
someone who often couldn't get the order right if his
life depended on it. He can't see there are four people
in the car, so he repeats the order summary after each
person finishes ... only to have to do it again after the
next person orders. It's a joke! Then you pull up to the
first window to pay, and that guy is now taking the next
order while you're paying-or, if you're at a franchise
that has two drive-thru lanes that converge into one
with a single cashier, there's an added layer of 'which
order did you have again?' Guess how that works out.
No worries-it's just the money!
If you drive across the street to In-N-Out Burger,
the difference is all-encompassing. You give your order,
face to face, to a human who can see that there will be
several orders from several people, and doesn't waste
time repeating each order after each person's turn. Who
would've thought that it'd be best for an employee
to be able to see you with her eyeballs? That concept
must be mind-blowing for the senior management
team at McDonald's, who can't seem to realise how
many wrong orders-and lost sales-are placed daily
in their 36,899 restaurants, in 128 countries, serving
68 million people per day.

I've watched dentists talk to each other on the
Dentaltown message boards several hours a day, every
day, since we started in 1999. They'll talk about the best
bonding agents, implants or composites until 3 in the
morning-but if I ask them how many new customers
have to call their offices before their front desk staff
manages to convert one to an appointment, many of these
superdentist clinicians have no idea. They're confused
because they don't know what a "customer" is; they
say, 'You mean a new patient?' (The national average
answer to that question, by the way, is 3.5-that's how
many people your staff will need to speak to before one
converts to a new patient who comes to your office.)

You've got to pay attention to sales
Here's the dental equivalent: I could sit on the
phone for an hour calling dental offices, and half of the
time my calls go to voicemail. If the phone is answered
in person-by someone whose job title was named
after a piece of furniture, the 'front
desk person'-chances are I'll hear,
'Can you please hold?' (That's not an
actual question most of the time, by
the way-it's just a phrase they say
perfunctorily, without listening for a
response, before they put you on hold.)

by Howard Farran, DDS, MBA, publisher, Dentaltown magazine

10

AUGUST 2017 // dentaltownuk.com

See Howard Live!
Howard Farran, DDS, MBA, is an international
speaker who's written books and dozens of
articles. To schedule Howard to speak at your
next national, state or local dental meeting,
email rebecca@farranmedia.com.

2017
AUG.
18-19

Dental Summit Nashville

AUG.
25

Watersedge Dental
Lab presentation

OCT.
11

Asteto Dental Labs
study group

Nashville, Tennessee

Ottawa, Ontario

Saddle Brook, New Jersey
http://www.dentaltownuk.com
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of DentaltownUK August 2017
