Trust me – I’m a Dentist…
I had the misfortune of cracking a tooth earlier this week, which gave way to the inevitable phone call to the dentist.
After a short 15 minute appointment that was totally painless, I left with a temporary filling that will see me through to the New Year and an appointment in the diary for a crown to be fitted.
The bill for today’s visit was less than £20 but the crown will be significantly more…
However, whilst driving back I started to think about the customer experience I’d had today. I’ve been making this same round trip, to the same dentist for over 20 years now and, more often than not, I’ve been completely overjoyed to walk out of the surgery with little more than an alphabet recital and a gargle of some pink mouth wash to keep me going for another year. In fact I’d offer little resistance to pay any amount they requested for as little work as possible. Happy days!
However, upon receipt of this relatively bad news and its pending cost, I still found myself walking back to the car perfectly happy and it dawned on me the reason why – Trust.
Whether this was going to be one of those quick in-and-out check-ups or a full blown procedure requiring every tool in the dentist’s box, the fact of the matter is that it really didn’t matter. I had total trust that they would provide the best resolution possible and the business of payment then became pretty irrelevant.
Don’t worry this isn’t forewarning that I’m about to hike up my fees – in fact far from it. My current landlords will already know that I take my role as their dentist/letting agent first and foremost in every decision we make within the business and I think this is something that they have now come to appreciate. That is not to say that from time-to-time we don’t have to be the bearer of bad news and to manage a very tricky situation on behalf of a landlord. My point in all this is that I realise that we’re likely to work with some of our landlords for a period of 20 years or more and it’s that foundation of trust which is at the heart of everything I do today in preparation for our future…
“All I need to do now is work out how to tell all those other landlords that are not yet attending my practice” 🙂
After such praise I guess I should mention the dentist behind the epiphany.
Thanks to Dilip, Tracey & their team at the Butter Cross View Dental Practice in Bingham.
