What Is Service?

I was searching for some images recently and came across this one here that I thought would make a great conversation starter.

Often I’m searching for images to portray an association with a blog article I may be writing, but in this case, I found this image that stimulated the blog, rather than the other way around.

If you get my drift?

So let’s look at the image, and discuss each of the component words, and their contribution to our message.

SERVICE.

Central to our image is the word “SERVICE”, with all other words in the image contributing to the “SERVICE”.

CUSTOMER.

Customers are central to the concept of service.

Without customers we have no business, and with no business, then we cannot exude our service skills.

In exchange for the great service we provide to our customers, they respond with a degree of loyalty toward our business.

The better the service we provide, the more loyalty we create with our customer.

Our goal should be to make sure that our service is so exemplary that wanting to be taking their business anywhere else would be the thought farthest from their mind. 

FRIENDLY.

Service should always be provided in a friendly and courteous manner.

In fact, in my dental practice, the aim of our business was to build relationships with our patients that were  as strong as friendships.

I often said that 95% of the patients of my dental practice I would be happy to have as guests in my home.

When your relationship with your customers goes beyond what you do for them and embraces the “WHO” that you both are for each other, it is then that you have indeed embraced the body of the ideology of service.

SUPPORT.

Your customers must always believe that you are there to help them and to solve their issues and clarify their concerns.

Your customers want to know that you are indeed there to help them and to support them with what they are trying to achieve.

Your customers need to “feel” your support for them. They want to know that you have their back.

INNOVATIVE.

Your service processes need to be inventive and creative.

“Same old same old” is not going to do it forever for your customers.

With service, you need to be always looking for ways to improve upon the things that you do for your customers so that they look forward to seeing you with anticipation.

One of my mantras was:

“What can we do for Mrs Smith next time that will make her visit more memorable than it was today?”

Remember, the road to excellence has no finish line….

POSITIVE.

Remember, when your customer walks in your door, you have absolutely no idea what sort of day they have been having. 

Nor do you know what they are thinking, about their dental appointment, nor anything else for that matter.

Our role is to provide them with positive feelings during their time with us.

There is no time in our dental practice to be entertaining any thoughts of negativity about anything with any of our patients or with any of our co-workers.

As dental workers, sometimes we forget that attending a dental appointment can be emotionally draining for some of our guests.

We need to be doing everything in our power to send thoughts of positivity to our patients.

PRECISE.

Your service must be on point.

It must be as precise and as regular as a Swiss Watch.

Your customer service processes need to be defined so that they act with seamless regularity.

Your customers must never be made to feel that your service is contrived or that their requests are a burden or an inconvenience.

Your customers must always be feeling that the providing of service by you to them is an absolute pleasure for you.

TIMELY.

Your service must be appropriate.

It cannot be overdone.

Recently a friend was telling me about a burger place he visited, where once he had his food, a member of the wait staff had asked him how everything was so far on his visit.

As they do.

After he replied, she then removed a decoration from his table.

The presence of this decoration on his table was used by the wait staff to indicate to each other that this table had not been asked about their visit.

Removal of  the decoration from the table sent a message to all wait staff that this table had now been asked.

This story reminded me of a fine dining experience I had some twenty five years ago where everybody from the restaurant, and I do mean EVERYBODY, had asked us how we had enjoyed our food so far.

So much so, that when the head chef finally appeared to ask the same question, we had to tell him ENOUGH ALREADY…..

It was just too much.

Make sure that processes are timely and appropriate.

SERVICE.

If you are able to organise these seven ingredients into a constructive manner, you will find that your service processes will indeed be soaring towards world class  status.

Consistency is the key….

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Book your tickets HERE.

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The Ultimate Patient Experience is a simple to build complete Customer Service system in itself that I developed that allowed me to create an extraordinary dental office in an ordinary Sydney suburb. If you’d like to know more, ask me about my free special report.

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