At some point we need to ask ourselves, is our business referrable? Let me tell you who the winner of Eye Doctor of the year is.
The winner….will be announced after the break. LOL
Before I tell you why I chose this eye doctor as the eye doctor of the year, it is important to let you know how this award all came about. Simply put, I can’t nominate someone if I can’t even do business with them, much less refer them…right?
I wear glasses. I’m sure you can see that, but you may not have noticed due to my overall Brad Pitt like handsomeness. 🙂
Brad and Me
I called a local eye doctor to schedule an appointment. They went through a series of questions relating to contact info, eye health, contacts, etc, then told me that the next available appointment was 6 months out. OUCH. 10 mins on the phone….wasted for both them and me.
So I called another eye doctor. 3 times. I had decided after the 2nd call in 2 days that I would try one more time. They were fairly close in proximity to my home…so I wanted to give them a chance. I got hold of the doctor, not the receptionist because the receptionist had left 5 mins before I called, which was about 5 minutes before they were due to close. Meaning she left 10 minutes early. The doctor was only able to take my number and ask the receptionist to call me back. She was not able to set an appointment for me, for whatever reason.
The next day I called a different eye doctor. The receptionist there said she could help, so I asked her when the next available appointment was and she said they could see me that day. I was shocked. What?!?. I literally said…are you sure?
This was not my expectation for the industry due to my previous experiences. I booked an appointment for the next day. Showed up and got awesome service.
During my visit, I had a conversation with the receptionist. She shared with me the standards in the industry and how their office was different in many ways. I kept sharing with her how the process of getting an appointment with other offices was frustrating.
Here’s how they do things differently:
- Most eye doctors aren’t open on weekends, they are.
- Most are out 5 months for appointments, they are not, because they have 7 doctors that work on their staff at that office alone and they have 2 additional offices.
- Most doctors will block any open spots remaining on the calendar 48 hours in advance, leaving more free time. They do not, in fact, they love having those spots available for walk-ins and short notice appointments.
- Most eye doctors are running their business as a practice, just the one doctor, whereas this office runs it as a business. They are busy, they have many clients, and multiple doctors to handle the clients.
- The front office staff isn’t always available or accommodating, yet at this office, they were clearly available, accommodating, and when the same day appointment wasn’t taken, they offered next day.
- The offered text confirmation of appointments…yep…this is being run like a business.
- Their records cabinet was full…and I mean full. This shows confidence to the customer that they are in fact busy even though they can get you in quickly. One might argue that if all other offices are 5 months out on an appointment that this office just may not be busy…as such they can get you in immediately. This couldn’t be further from the truth, and you can see that the minute you arrive.
Takeaways:
Run your business like a business.
Find ways for customers to buy from you and not turn them away.
Good Enough Isn’t Good Enough…you have to over deliver to get referrals.
I referred!
The Eye Doctor of the year is Jewell Eye Inc. in Worcester Mass! Congrats Jewell Eye…you win our gratitude for running a smooth and referrable business!