Can You Hear Me Now?

A recent Entreleadership podcast highlighted a phenomenal experience at a dentist office — that’s right, you heard correctly, a dentist office experience was enjoyable.

I don’t know many people that like visiting the dentist, so how in the world were they able to pull that off? It actually wasn’t that complicated.

They just thought about what would make it easier to get through the dentist appointment, and did it.

The patient (Sean) had the paperwork emailed to him prior to the appointment in an easy, fillable form. When he walked into the appointment, the office knew who he was (even though they had never met) and greeted him by name — “Welcome Sean, I can take you back now”. And the waiting room? He never saw it, because he never had to sit down, they were ready for him upon arrival.

He then finds out he has to get a crown….usually the process would mean several dentist visits to mold it and x-ray the mouth so it fits correctly, etc. (a big hassle and a lot of time doing things you don’t want to do to reach the outcome) — this dentist explains that they have 3D printing technology and if he’d like, they can do it right now. No additional appointments, no more wasted time — immediate results, delivered.

He walked out thrilled. The crown may not have been fun, but the experience was a delight. Guess what he’ll do now? Tell everyone he knows that they have got to go to this dentist, and share his experience. Why? Not because of a marketing campaign, because of his experience.

This dentist had walked through the entire client process and designed solutions at every touchpoint — that delivers an incredible experience, that creates raving fans. This is why journey mapping is a foundational element of developing successful business models and marketing campaigns. Small and medium size businesses often think that they just need better marketing, when they simply need to reflect on the experience that they provide, and continue to improve it.