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Congratulations, Dr. Peterson!
Isn’t she lovely?!
We are pleased to announce the birth of our newest family member, Lily Kate Peterson. Lily was born to Dr. Jaime Peterson and her husband, Joe, this past Thursday, November 12th. While everyone said their son, EJ, was born looking just like Joe, Lily Kate is a spitting image of her mama! We are so excited for you guys and can’t wait for you to bring that baby to visit!
The Simple Math of Building Teams…and Pyramids
I’m often asked how I am able to keep my staff turnover so low. While most of it is just dumb luck, some of it is that I am fortunate—blessed—to have found the right people to work in my office, and some of it is just simple math: I take care of my employees, and they take care of me and my patients. Simple, right?
One of the ways in which this concept manifests itself is that I take these guys on a trip about every 2 or 3 years. Somewhere fun, like NYC or Jamaica, or most recently, the Dominican Republic (or now that we’re on a first-name basis with it, the “DR”). We get there and have no formalized agenda, unless there is a show or restaurant which requires a reservation; just throw on your Speedo—okay, that’s a lie—and have fun. Simple, right?
But, it’s amazing the level of camaraderie and cohesion that develops just traipsing around Manhattan or a beach somewhere. The number of wisecracks and bon mots slowly rise to a fever pitch, until everyone is crying…from laughter, and that is something you can’t go back and share with anyone. You just have to be there—that’s where the magic lives.
With this bunch, mostly due to one to-remain-unnamed hygienist, we have to make a pyramid, which leads to another level of laughter and wisecracks, but somehow memorializes what we do and the fun we have together—and lends itself to a whole ‘nother philosophical treatise on the importance of support in team-building. The photograph above tells the tale.
Simple, right?
Move Over Starbucks: A Dentist/MBA Student Does a Survey of His Own
In past blog posts, I have written about the fact that I am pursuing an MBA. This endeavor is partly a self-enrichment project (you can only watch so much American Idol!), but mostly because I am a continuous student, always interested in learning how to better the clinical and business aspects of my practice.
The first case study in my current marketing class (MBA 560!) covers Starbucks’ efforts to improve customer service by understanding customer value, needs and behavior. Part of this effort involved a survey wherein patrons were asked, “How could Starbucks make you feel more valued as a customer?” The results interested me as, like dentistry, Starbucks is really more of a service business than a purveyor of a product. Sure enough, the survey revealed that customers feel more value from a friendly, attentive staff far more than the other possible responses, including cost of beverages and promotions or specials. Of course, it is a given that the coffee is good, right?
So, I decided to put some of this book learnin’ to use and design my own survey to find out dental patients’, including my own, values, needs and behavior. I created a survey using Facebook and SurveyMonkey applications, which consisted of a single question, “What makes you feel more valued as a patient?” Respondents were able to select up to eight answers, including a write-in answer. The survey was posted on social media (MBA 610!)—Facebook through my personal page (970 “friends”), business page (1,036 “likes”), and I utilized Facebook’s advertising application to “boost” the survey for one day, which resulted in the ad being shown to an additional 4,574 Facebook users, which I targeted for age and proximity to my office. I also shared the SurveyMonkey survey to LinkedIn, Twitter, Google +, and to 1,183 patient emails and 811 patient texts using my patient communication application, RevenueWell.
The Facebook and SurveyMonkey results mirrored each other almost exactly (closely matched the Starbucks survey as well!). The SurveyMonkey results can be viewed at the following link, https://www.surveymonkey.com/results/SM-3N69R9PV/, or, take a look at the chart at the bottom of this page.
With well over 100 combined responses, the survey is a statistically-valid sample (MBA 505!). Similar to the Starbucks survey, I noted that “Friendly, attentive staff and doctor” is by far the quality that makes the patient feel most valued. “Personal treatment” and “Timeliness/punctuality” are distant second and third, respectively.
So, I now scientifically know what I intuitively knew: My targeted market and existing patients prefer a friendly, attentive staff and doctor above all other given options. Moving forward, we will redouble our focus on customer service and spending time getting to know patients better (as well as staying on time!). Give the people what they want!
Gillespie Dental Associates 