Pain Points: Tech Thoughts from the Dentist's Chair

Nobody likes it when their internet connection goes down. When it goes down at home it’s an inconvenience; when it goes down at work, it’s often costly both in time and lost revenue. There is frustration as you can't work on the projects you planned --- and somehow the line typically goes down when you are on deadline. And then there is the uncertainty as you often you have no idea when the network will come back up and you'll be operational again, so business can proceed as usual. After all, does anyone really trust what your internet provider says about when service will be restored, if they are even available to provide that information?

 Recently I was thinking about this as I sat in the dentist's chair preparing to get my wisdom teeth extracted. Talk about painful. I don't recommend it, unless, like for me, the pain of not doing it was even worse than the actual procedure and the recovery.

 You probably are thinking that the correlation between what we do at RCS and my visit to the dentist was that getting info when the internet goes down is like pulling teeth. But alas, I was thinking a bit deeper, perhaps on my pain med high.

 At RCS, one of our common discussion points with our clients are their “pain points.” What is happening in their IT structure that can keep them from being operational? These are issues that can cause pain to impact day-to-day functionality --- and quickly hit a bottom line.

 At RCS, one of the things we always are on top of is how we can improve our customer's experience and eliminate their pain points. In our internal staff meetings, we often ask ourselves, "how can we add value to our clients, not just by adding on to what we're providing to them service-wise, but by enhancing HOW we service them."

Let’s look at what my dentist did that set him apart for me. Prior to my visit, he spent time patiently looking into the various insurance options I could receive. At the consult, he treated me like I was his only patient; letting me ask as many questions as I wanted, for as long as I needed. After the procedure, he personally followed up within 24 hours of my visit to ask how I was feeling and to question whether I’d like to come back in for a free follow-up visit to make sure everything is alright. Seeing how I felt, I knew that is what real customer care looks like.

 Recently, I finished reading ---- and then immediately re-reading --- Danny Meyer's book Setting the Table where he talks about the power of service and the responsibility of being a service company. Throughout his career, Danny has founded 15+ restaurants, as well as the fast food chain, Shake Shack, that has now sprung up in locations around the world. For him --- and his team --- delivering superior customer service is an ongoing mission. In an email exchange with him after I read his book, he reiterated the importance of what he deems the 51%ers, as people with 49% skill and 51% customer service aesthetics as being crucial to delivering superior customer service.

At RCS, we couldn't agree more. 

Many companies do what we do, but like what I saw from my dentist, what sets us apart is the WAY that we do it.

 My dentist's visit made me think about all the things we do for our clients to give them an exceptional customer experience. Nobody likes when they have a toothache, just like no one is happy when their internet connection stops working, but when it does, it's good to know you have somewhere to turn, and that your problem is going to be resolved, and that you might even get some awesome customer care while it's being worked on.

 Finding a reliable dentist is hard. Calling us is easy + you don't even need to worry about insurance because if you are one of our managed clients, we're always "in network." 

 Oh, and on the question about what to do about the internet going out, call us. We have a solution.