Some Marketing Lessons from my (new) Dentist.

After way too long, I needed to go to a dentist and followed a recommendation from a friend to go to Garo Adomian, D.D.S. on Alameda Ave in Burbank. The three lessons in marketing we can all be reminded of are: respect, communication and delight!

Respect

One of the problems I’ve constantly encountered with medical professionals of all kinds is that they rarely respect their patient’s time. In my world the provider of a service (yes, even medical) should be able to schedule their time so that customers (aka patients) do not waste excessive time. Unfortunately until this week, I’ve never attended an appointment where the medical professional was ready at the appointed time. Some have been even egregious: hours behind the supposed schedule.

Dr Adomian’s admin support had all my paperwork ready, and I was in to prep right on time. That’s the first thing that impressed me: he respected my time as much as his own.

Lesson one: Respect your customers.

Communcation

Throughout the entire process, I was kept informed about what was to happen at all times. Being a curious person I like to understand what’s going on and why. Every step was communicated ahead of time, including why his injections took so long. (Aside, because he didn’t rush like other dentists I’ve attended over the year.) While the extraction was happening I was constantly kept informed about what to expect, including the inevitable bit of tooth flying off as it was being extracted.

Lesson two: keep your customers informed as to what is happening.

Delight

An idea that has long been part of my portfolio of marketing ideas. Back in Australia (a lifetime ago) we would design a nice VHS (and later) DVD cover for the clients’ projects, instead of a plain wrapping.

But nothing caught me by surprise and delight as much as when my phone rang at around 7pm that night. It was Dr Adomian calling to make sure everything was OK: that the pain was under control (thank you Vicodin), that the bleeding had stopped, etc.

This totally floored me. I’ve never heard of anything like this. Ever. Heck, I’d have been impressed if his office rang the next morning!

This is a level of surprise and delight that, when you think about it, is both a great marketing strategy, but is also good for Dr Adomian. There can’t have been that many oral surgeries or extractions in the day – it’s a single dentist practice – and it was only about a one minute phone call, but it totally delighted me. As for the dentist: should there be any complication or issue, he’s being far more proactive at managing that – and more likely to catch something early, rather than waiting for a patient to think things were “enough” to call him.

Respect, communication and delight. Great tools for improving relationships with clients and great marketing. I just never expected them from a medical professional!

And they validate parking!