It’s show time! I know this is a stretch, and like all analogies, this one has its limits. However, many of the practice management consultants in our profession advise their clients to start each day with the exhortation, “It’s show time.” Among others, bartenders say that to themselves every night when they report to work. Certainly, this is true of the successful ones. Let’s learn from them, and explore what it means in a dental context.
So really, how do bartenders and dentists relate to the notion of “It’s show time”? Or, are they related at all? And finally, if you are offended that I am equating serving alcoholic beverages with providing professional oral healthcare, I invite you to lighten up a bit. Frequently, descriptions, comparisons, and analogies can be seen as tongue-in-cheek, so I hope you can sit back and relax, even smile a bit, through my riff.
CUSTOMER/PATIENT EXPECTATIONS
The first thing we should examine is the notion of customer/patient expectations. Customers at a bar expect a certain level of competence—a gin martini should be stirred and not shaken, the proportions should be second nature, and the glasses and the bar itself should be clean and neat. I am sure that you can understand my point. In dentistry, our patients expect that we know what we are doing. If I propose a crown, a restoration, a laminate or any other treatment, my patient assumes that I know how to expertly and efficiently provide this service. That is why we take postgraduate continuing education to brush up on things and to stay absolutely on top of the game. The process of self-evaluation is why we are called professionals. And, while I’m mentioning continuing education, let me suggest that clinicians shouldn’t be shy about sharing newfound knowledge and relevant information with their dental team and patients. Folks like to know that their doctor is expanding their dental horizons, and this will also serve to be especially good modeling for your entire dental office team. The doctor, as a lifelong student, says something quite positive about you and the practice, and after all, don’t you want your team to be constant learners as well? Dental techniques and materials are constantly evolving, and everyone around you should know that you are as well. A proper martini and a proper crown are both expected, since materials and gins are always developing. Okay, I’ll stop beating a dead horse.
As a dentist or hygienist, we are expected to be as painless as possible. We won’t have any patients if we violate this axiom; the bartender, on the other hand (again, tongue-in-cheek), provides pain-reducing medication. Alcohol, in many cases does that for a very short time. However, the major point is that the particular product or service aside, there are other reasons that a dentist or a bartender is successful. You should be skilled with your abilities to deliver dental services as painlessly as possible.
I got some of these insights from Sean Brosnan of the Irish Voice Reporter. My ever-on-the-alert-to-connecting-the-dots wife, Maralyn Dolan, shared with me Sean Brosnan’s Confessions of an Irish Bartender Working in New York City (available on irishcentral.com), and I am liberally sharing his thoughts with you. By the way, Mr. Brosnan makes the important distinction between working in a bar in Ireland and working in one in New York City. We can make the distinction in a similar way, for surely we want to serve top-shelf libation; however, sometimes Four Roses will simply have to do.
We all know that there are differences between fee-for-service offices and ones that are insurance-driven. Customer and patient intimacy should be a goal in all settings. But if you recall the TV series Cheers, that should be the model for customer and patient intimacy. In my office, I am the “lead actor.” People come to see me, and they expect me to know them, to know their quirks and their families, and, in many cases, even their trials and tribulations. We have to get the timing right. We have to know when to speak, when to listen, and of course, how to limit the interactions so that we can do the dentistry. But make no mistake about this—without effective foreplay, the visits, even if the crown is superb, will fall flat, and so might I add will be the quality of the referral. “My dentist is okay” is not the way we want to have our patients talk about us. Good enough is not good at all. Another way of saying this, and of course I am oversimplifying, is that we treat people, and people have teeth and feelings. We ignore the emotional stuff at our own peril.
I often think about Thomas Watson (okay, really not all that often), the founder of IBM, who transformed his company from one that made and sold clocks, scales, and tabulators into a global behemoth, not only by brilliant marketing and foresight but also by creating a sales force based on the notion that people buy products and services from people they like. Yes, our patients will get treatment from us if and only if they like (and trust) us. This might seem simplistic, but if you tune your ear to what people say about businesses, you will always hear, “He is a really nice guy.” Listen for that—it is more significant, albeit subtle, than the comments about the quality of the craft. “Nice guy” comments are often based on the ways we are seen relating to our staff and vendors and how timely we are with our appointment schedule; this is a respect thing, and of course how emotionally centered we are, not manic, not depressed, but even-keeled.
MY TAKEAWAY
Work hard to be a nice person and use that to create the most pleasant and kind culture possible in your practice. And yes, we are dentists. Surely we don’t forget that in dental school, we learned about teeth, gums, and the human body, and in our superb dental office, all of this knowledge is assumed. We are rewarded by the referrals from our loyal patients who have great affection for us. We have earned that affection by getting to know and nurture our patients. No question that we treat people who have teeth, but never forget that the human being and his or her teeth are connected. And make no mistake about this: there are no shortcuts or tricks short of looking in the mirror each morning and asking ourselves what is the relationship that we want to create and what kind of work do we have to make that a reality. Imbue your dental team with this mindset. To use an unusual word from Steve Jobs’ biographer, Walter Isaacson, everything we do should impute this.
And finally, I want to leave you with something that I regularly say to my nervous patients: “I am also a recovering fearful patient, and I too have teeth and feelings.” This might be little hokey, but over the years I’ve been told that this expression of empathy keeps patients connected to my humanity and to theirs as well.
Dr. Goldstein graduated from the City College of New York before receiving his dental degree from the University of Pennsylvania School of Dental Medicine in 1968. He is a founding member of the newly formed Dental Coaches Association, a uniquely qualified group of certified dental coaches (coachingpractice.com). He maintains both a general dental practice as well as a coaching practice in New York City. He is a frequent contributor to the dental literature and publishes regularly in the Journal of Laser Dentistry and Dentistry Today and serves on the editorial board of both publications. Certified as a professional coach in 2001, he often addresses audiences on topics of personal effectiveness, fulfillment, and leadership. He presents the use of lasers in dentistry and the areas of coaching/practice management. He can be reached at (212) 580-8100 or via email at llaama1@mindspring.com.
Disclosure: Dr. Goldstein reports no disclsoures.
