BUSINESS

  business strategies

Your Reputation is on the Line

How do you deal with problems, even when they aren’t your fault?

GARY GERBER, O.D.

My son was leaving for college on a Saturday. I was traveling that weekend, so I rented him a truck to carry his belongings. We picked it up on Thursday. He called me late Saturday morning to tell me the truck had two bald tires.

You would think I’d be teeing up the article about time management and planning ahead. And though yes, that certainly would have made events less stressful, this article is about what happened next.

Phoning it in

I called the rental location. “Frank has to take care of that, and he’s not here now,” I was told.

“Do you know when he’ll be back, or can you call him?” I asked.

“No, I don’t and no, I can’t. But it shouldn’t be too long,” the rental location employee replied.

“Can we just exchange the truck for a different one as my son is on a tight schedule and has a long drive ahead?” I replied.

“Frank has to take care of that, and he’s not here now,” the employee replied.

One hour later, I call again and get the same response.

Forty-five minutes later, Frank returned my call. “We can’t swap the truck because it’s already out on contract. You’ll have to call roadside assistance.”

I called roadside assistance, and they showed up about an hour later and changed the tires. My son made it safely to college.

Lessons to share

What lessons learned can I share with you for your practice?

1. Frank could easily have trained his staff person and empowered her to say, “We can’t swap the truck. You have to call roadside assistance.” That lack of training cost us about two hours.

Are you allowing staff to handle non-clinical admin-type issues at the point of patient contact, or are they telling patients, “Dr. Jones has to take care of that, and he’s with a patient right now”?

2. Although it probably could have been prevented, it’s not Frank’s fault the truck had bald tires. But it is his responsibility. His location is my human connection to the monolithic corporate rental company. He is my point person, and he let me down.

Similarly, our patients are let down when we reply, “Yes, I know it’s been 10 days, but we still don’t have your glasses. The lab said the right lens was off axis and had to be remade. That’s why it’s taking so long.”

Although it really is the lab’s fault, it’s our responsibility. In these cases, be a strong patient advocate. Show empathy and compassion. Do whatever is possible to make the patient happy, and show inordinate amounts of understanding:

“I agree — 10 days is unreasonable, and I promise to call the lab twice a day to make sure you get your glasses in the absolute shortest amount of time and that they are absolutely perfect for you.”

Of course, if you have an in-office finishing lab, you can volunteer to make something up as a stopgap for the patient. And from a bigger-picture perspective, if situations like this are frequent, change labs. Give the patient some token gift when he picks up his glasses, and apologize profusely for the delay.

Supporting the sale

Remember that your practice reputation is on the line. Do whatever you can to support that sale with exemplary service — even when things go wrong and it’s really not your fault. OM

DR. GERBER IS THE PRESIDENT OF THE POWER PRACTICE, A COMPANY SPECIALIZING IN MAKING OPTOMETRISTS MORE PROFITABLE. LEARN MORE AT WWW.POWERPRACTICE.COM, OR CALL DR. GERBER AT (888) 356-4447.