Just a day
 5.45am – alarm call in Sheffield and another encounter with the breakfast from hell – this time I plunge the serving spoon into a a vat of liquified scrambled egg and walk away, accepting tea and toast as my best option. 6.45am – sit down in the main hotel bar and begin work on [...]
Historic breakfasts
Breakfast at the Royal Victoria is an extraordinary event. Served in the main hotel restaurant – more high ceilings and aspidestras. What’s unusual is the hotel staff. I arrive at 6.30am to find a very stocky and chirpy lady who literally shouts, “MorningSirroomnumber pleasehelpyourselfit’sselfservicewouldyouliketeaorcoffee?” in one unbroken torrent of words that have me flinching out [...]
Old and new
  I’m at the Royal Victoria Hotel in Sheffield this evening, after a 6-hour drive during which I connected by (hands-free) phone to clients, Team and friends. The day began at 7.00am with a post-weekend email catch-up and a chance to sit and think about what I want to achieve in a busy week [...]
The end of treatment letter
A client asked me, this morning, to remind him of the wording: Dear Mr. Barrow, Now that we have reached the end of your current course of treatment, I wanted to take this opportunity to thank you for placing your trust and confidence in myself and the team here at Aardvark Dental. We are delighted [...]
Answering the phone properly – and a great customer service experience
The last 2 days I have been calling clients again – another round of our 15-minute telephone coaching meetings. I am moved to mention that the majority of my clients do not have receptionists who answer the phone correctly. I’m not criticising these receptionists – most of them are doing their best in the absence [...]
Marketing, marketing, marketing
Marketing NEVER ends, marketing NEVER stops, you keep on marketing even when it’s raining new clients. The last 6 months have been the best ever in 9 years of The Dental Business School. And yet, here’s what we are planning at the moment: a 21,000 leaflet drop in the British Dental Journal a 20,000 leaflet [...]
Focus and priorities
Monday morning – it’s blowing a violent gale outside but I’m trying to re-create health and fitness as a priority in my life and go for a run before the day starts. I’ve been a runner for over 25 years and every now and then leave it alone for a while. The latest “while” has [...]
The call-in day
Once a month I spend the day in 15-minute phone calls with my clients. They book in via an on-line appointment scheduler and I call them at the appointed time. Once the clients have been working with me for a while they “get it” that there is value in sending an email a day or [...]
The end of yet another busy week
Saturday morning and, unusually, I’m sat at the back of the room watching somebody else present to my clients. Dr. Asif Syed is spending the day with a pilot group of 7 clients, discussing and presenting on the use of Key Performance Indicators to keep your “finger on the pulse” of the dental practice. Not [...]
I must be back
Because I’m sat in the lounge at Exeter International Airport – with hundreds of stranded travellers – waiting for a host of delayed flights, including mine to Belfast, where I’m presenting with Isoplan this evening. After a week of no emails, no phone calls, no paperwork – in fact not even a conversation about business, [...]
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