By Dr. David Bradley
New Year’s Day came and went, and left a lot of challenges in its wake. During the very first week of January, our office team experienced a really hard day. One of our assistants called out first thing in the morning due to a death in the family. “Alright,” we thought to ourselves, “we can still get through the day.” But then we arrived at the office and discovered our computer network was down. Now normally I’m the in-house IT guy, but when I couldn’t figure out what was causing the problem, we had to bring in the experts. Two hours later, it was up and running, but sporadically. And because our office is entirely based on electronics, we were essentially flying blind. “Okay,” we thought, “this is a challenge, but we can still survive.” Of course, Murphy’s Law was in full effect that day, and as we gathered together for our morning huddle, yet another assistant called in to say she wouldn’t be making it to work. There we were; down two team members, down on the computer network, and down on our luck. “Well,” we thought to ourselves, “now what?”
Fortunately, we’re incredibly blessed to have such a fantastic and hard-working team. They rallied together right away and got through the (granted, hectic) day without any major wrinkles. We didn’t have to reschedule any of our patients, and, if you happened to come in that day, you probably didn’t even notice anything was wrong. Patti and I were so proud to see our team join forces the way they did to take on the day and turn a potentially disastrous situation into “no big deal.” It was especially rewarding for us to watch our rigorous hiring and training efforts pay off! In the past, we’ve struggled to find the right people for our practice. Right now we’ve got the A-Team of dental offices, and we wouldn’t have it any other way.
In fact, because our practice is right next to a Ritz-Carlton, we tend to see a lot of Ritz employees. And it’s not uncommon for them to comment, “You guys are just like us!” — meaning that we treat our guests, our employees, and our office the same way they treat theirs. If you’ve ever stayed at a Ritz, you know exactly what I’m talking about. Their staff members abide by the Gold Standard: “the genuine care and comfort of [their] guests is [their] highest mission.” They pledge to provide the finest personal service and facilities for their guests, and to fulfil even the unexpressed wishes of their patrons. On top of that, they’ve nailed down the three steps to providing unmatchable customer service: 1. A warm and sincere greeting. 2. Anticipation and fulfillment of each guest’s needs. 3. A fond farewell.
Sound familiar? We never intended to take a page from the Ritz-Carlton’s employee handbook, but we’re glad we do! We love hearing that our practice is comparable to the Gold Standard of hospitality, and the fact that we hear those things from the Ritz Carlton employees themselves just makes it all the sweeter. When we first started this practice, we promised ourselves that our patients would always come first and that we would do everything within our power to ensure their health and happiness. Seventeen years later, not much has changed!
Thank you to our amazing team for upholding the Gold Standard even in the most difficult of times, and thank you to our patients for continuing to give us a reason to stay gold. We couldn’t do it without you!