What are you paying for? If you think its all same and it really doesn't matter, then why aren't you buying your clothes from Wal-Mart, Target or K-mart?

What you pay and what you get....DOES matter and is directly related!

Don't get me wrong, these businesses do a excellent job of targeting and marketing to their clientele and they pay their associates accordingly.

You pay your Hygienist an excellent salary because of amount of production you expect her to produce. Your Assistant produces to an extent, but she is an "assistant" you are producer. (Now hold off before you start sending in all those letters.)

Have you thought about everything that's going on up front? This is your first and last impression area, your hub of activity: Telephone calls are received and made Patients are welcomed and dismissed Appointments are scheduled and rescheduled Treatment is enrolled and financial options arranged Money is discussed and collected Insurance is filed and payments received Relationships are started, nurtured, take root and grow

This area is not only a top producer area, it is your in-house "Specialist" area.... actual LIFELINE of your practice!

When we think "specialist" we think "tops in their field" and they get paid for what they know and for what they can do.

Managers, Got a Grip on Your PR?

What are you trying to do with your business, non-profit or association public relations program? Get a little publicity for a service or product? Or, perhaps, you’re doing what you really should do, persuade your key external stakeholders to your way of thinking, then move them to take actions that lead to success of your department, division or subsidiary.

To reach that objective, and get a real grip on your PR effort, you need a model like this: people act on their own perception of facts before them, which leads to predictable behaviors about which something can be done. When we create, change or reinforce that opinion by reaching, persuading and moving-to-desired-action very people whose behaviors affect organization most, public relations mission is accomplished.

No small matter because this blueprint will help you redirect focus of public relations folks assigned to your unit from communications tactics over to your external audiences in a way that allows you to move ever closer to personal success as a unit manager.

The reason this PR paradigm works is that it requires you as unit manager to zero in on exactly those people who play a big role in how successful a manager you’re going to be – your key external audiences.

The perceptions held by your most important outside audiences are crucial to your success. So meet with your PR crew and hammer out a consensus as to why it’s vital to nail down just how your operation is perceived out there in real world. They’ll tell you quick-like that those perceptions almost always result in predictable behaviors that can help you or hurt you.

Which means you need to interact with members of your most important target audience while posing a number of questions. “What do you know about our organization? Have you ever made contact with us? Was it a satisfactory experience? Do you have an opinion about our people, services or products? Do you have a problem with our organization?

By way, if your budget allows a significant expense, you can retain services of professional survey people to interview target audience members. Of course your own PR staff is already concerned with perception and behavior matters, so they might lend a hand in this regard.