Hi,
Have you ever arrived
for an appointment at the correct time only to be told the person
you seeing is running late?
I'm sure that has happened to you on
many occasions. In the story I'm about to relay to you, this
incident happened to one of my clients
recently.
My client and his wife arrived to see
this health professional at the appointed time. The
receptionist had even confirmed the time the day before. On
arrival at the health clinic there were told the practitioner was
running 30 minutes late. The reason being that the first
appointment for the day had arrived late due to heavy traffic so
consequently every other appointment was set back.
Unfortunately no-one at the clinic had
the initiative to contact any of the clients to say there would be
a 30 minute delay. My client was fuming. Being 5
minutes late was not too long to wait, but 30 minutes? How
would you feel? They felt so strongly that they told the
receptionist exactly how they felt and why hadn't they phoned
them. John told her they would not stay and that they
would be taking their business elsewhere.
There's a few messages in this story:
1. Whoever was in charge of that practice should have a
rule that anyone being more than 10 minutes late for an
appointment will have to reschedule.
2. If a client is scheduled for say a 45 minute
appointment and they arrive 30 minutes late, then they are only
seen for the scheduled time.
3. The receptionist should be trained by the business
owner or manager to contact people if appointments are running
more that 10 minutes late.
4. Take the initiative yourself and ring the person you
are going to see to check if they will be on time.
This same scenario happened to me a
few weeks ago. I arrived at the naturopath's clinic on time
and the receptionist (who obviously has never had any training for
her role) announced that the practitioner was running 20 minutes
late and seemed to think that was ok. I then
informed her that she should have rung me as my time is also
valuable.
Although this practitioner seems to
know what she's doing (and came highly referred by a respected
source in that industry), I would not hesitate going somewhere
else if I come across a better alternative as this is not the
first time I have been unhappy with the level of service provided
at this clinic.
And that's the crux of this
newsletter... you could be losing hundreds and even thousands of
dollars a year in lost revenue in your business because of how
your business is run. Dissatisfied clients won't always tell
you, they'll just take their business elsewhere.
Situations like this one can easily be avoided.
Unfortunately in many businesses, the
business owner is the technician. They do what they're good
at i.e. accounting, fixing computers, helping people get well or
whatever. They have no concept of how to run a business of
what they do.
In business today you need far more
than your technical skills to not only survive
but thrive in business. You need to be good at strategic
planning, marketing, managing people, managing money, systems and
procedures and customer service. You cannot do all these
successfully on your own.... and that's why business owners get coached.
A good coach will
provide you with:
- Accountability and urgency
- Objectivity/truth-telling
- Clarity and focus
- Valuable contacts
- A shortened timeframe of learning (saving you time, money
and stress)
- Sounding board for ideas
- A fresh set of eyes
- Motivation
They also have experience and
knowledge and clients they have worked with who are living
testimony to the benefits of their coaching.
Also you will require a range of
coaches to assist you as there is no one person who has all the
answers. However, whatever you do make sure you get coached
by people who are experienced in the areas you need. For
instance, don't expect your accountant to provide you coaching on
how to get yourself organised and manage your business effectively
when their expertise is on financial management.
The Final Word
What can you do differently to ensure
you're on time for all your appointments? Being late sends
out many messages.. you're disorganised, sloppy and
unprofessional. When you can count on someone who is
consistently on time the opposite message is conveyed. Just
by being punctual makes you stand out from the crowd.
Have a great
week!
Lorraine
Australia's No. 1 Productivity Coach
'Before being coached I had just
about given up on being organised. My office
was very cluttered and I seemed to spend half my day
looking for things. The 'To Do' list (when I could find
it) just kept growing and I was regularly missing
deadlines. My Personal Assistant tried to introduce some
new systems, but 'old habits die hard'. (I had even
subscribed to Lorraine 's newsletter 'The Organised Times'
which always has useful tips. I did that three years ago,
but didn't take any action.) 
