Sitting in the hotel in Scottsdale, and thinking of an incident that just happened to me upon my arrival.

I left two days ago from Baltimore on a 5 hours direct flight to Phoenix to mentor FGTP. I worked that day till 1:00pm, then my assistant picked me up to the airport. Waited in PHX airport for two more hours till my sister arrived on another flight, took the shuttle to the rental car, then drove to the hotel, which I've stayed before multiple times.

By the time I arrived to the hotel, it was way passed midnight Maryland time, and I was ready to go to bed. Upon checking in, which was very smooth as usual in this hotel, I asked the receptionist about the different excursions that they have, and said to her, that I have to come back to see which activity I should sign up my sister for, so that she won't get bored while I am the course. The girl said that the concierge can arrange anything for me, so I said that would be good, I'll stop by the next day to book something.

The concierge was there, and of course heard the conversation, so she walks in, shakes my hand with both hands and introduces herself, then pulls a book and asks me for my name and cell phone number, and tells me about some open house for the chain company that owns the hotel, and gives me the info about it along with her business card, and says: If you attend this open house, I get a credit for it, so please let me know when you can attend.

Owning a business that was built on world class customer service, where I drilled the idea on focusing wholeheartedly on the patients that we see with my team day in and day out, I was thinking when that lady was talking to me: She didn't ask me whether the time was good for me to talk about the excursions right then, when I was ready to take the key of the suite and go to sleep, she didn't understand what I was looking for exactly, which was for my sister, and not for me. She didn't listen to what I was telling the receptionist, and even if she were listening, she didn't hear anything I said. Her main focus was to sign me up for some stupid open house to get some bonus.

I was thinking of Simon Sinek as she was talking to me, when he talks about: If you don't understand people, you don't understand business, I was thinking of other people that talk about customer service, and I was ready to tell her: In business until you forget completely about yourself, and focus on adding value to the person in front of you, you will never have any success in any business. However, I didn't say anything, and went straight to bed.

Today when I came from the course, the telephone red light was blinking, I am it is a message from her to check on me to see when I can attend. I didn't listen to the message, and needless to say, I didn't sign up for anything, since the trust was gone, because people don't buy from companies, people buy from people, that you believe in and trust.

At a level of a dental office, I think this incident is repeated everyday hundreds of times in this County. Dentists don't listen enough to their patients,because their mind is occupied with something else, and even if they want to listen, 4 minutes with a patient in the hygiene room is anything but a healthy environment to create a bond and trust with a patient.

Team members don't listen to the spoken and silent language that their patients are telling them, but they don't hear the spoken words, and they miss the unsaid ones, and the patient leaves the office with his needs and expectations are not listen to, or unmet at best.

Years ago, I had an existing patient of record that came in to the office to talk about a bill that he received from the office manager. he wanted to set some sort of extended payment plan in house, but my office manager at the time, was aggressive in her approach, and wanted to collect the balance on the spot. The patient was clearly irritated and told her: Maybe I should take my business somewhere else, to which she responded: Sir,if you take your business somewhere else, you would do us a great service.

When I heard what she said, I felt like a freight train hit me. From that day on, customer service became a culture in our office, it is taught, practiced and drilled weekly.

If you are in the business of customer service, which most of us are, customer service should be on the top of our priority list, since without a customer, there is no service.

Andrew