Church of the Customer Blog
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July 26, 2005
Open wider
My dentist, Dr. Tim Dotson, just called me.
I had some old fillings replaced today. Took about an hour. Not one iota of pain. (With the nitrous oxide, it was a bit otherworldly.) Tim was calling a few hours later to make sure I was OK, free of problems, etc.
Out of the dozen or so different dentists I've visited in my life, not one has ever called after a procedure to check in.
For service providers, generating word of mouth often means doing the emotionally unexpected.
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Oh so true. We have a number of clients that are Doctors/Nutritionists. We implemented a simple reminder system so that someone in the office always called a few days after a visit to check on the patienht. People are completely shocked by a simple call.
The best service technology remains the human kind. Very hard to replace a thoughtful human touch to create something memorable and remarkable.
Howard -- Your clients are in rarified air. Kudos to them.
If anyone should be doing Word of Mouth Marketing I guess it should be dentists... boom boom!
What's really weird is when someone you've given charity donations to in the past calls you and -- even though you know you want to support them -- you just don't want the call. You answer anyway, and all they do is say "thank you for your support" and "are there any questions I can answer about us?" before thanking you again and hanging up. Now that throws you off.
I just had my first cavity in 30 years (ouch!) and my dentist, Bilal Siab, also called that evening to check and make sure I was okay. I was completely surprised and delighted.
My Dentist, Dr John Michaelopolous in Sydney, Australia, always gives his patients follow-up calls to ensure everything is fine after a procedure.
He also makes sure that when he gives you an injection, he warms the anesthetic up to body temperature to avoid the freezing cold sensation you otherwise get as it spreads through your cheek.
There is a TV above the chair so that you get to watch something whilst being worked on, and he and his nurse make sure they keep up a pleasant thread of idle conversation to keep your mind off what is going on in your mouth.
He is a GREAT dentist. I've been recommending people to him for the last ten years.
I agree with Angus, John (Michaelopolous) is a great dentist and a lovely man.I have been going to him since about 1994. I had extractions last year, anyone sitting in the waiting room would never have guessed, I was laughing all the way through... not from drugs but from the conversation. He's an extremely thorough dentist and has a wonderful chair-side manner.
