You know the imagery here – a fire at an oil well, flames leaping into the air and a gigantic cloud shrouding the surrounding land. Rather similar to what happens when gossip breaks out in a business. An example of which was presented to me the other day as a coaching assignment. “A new nurse
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A client emailed me asking for suggested wording to a patient whose rude and disrespectful behaviour could no longer be tolerated. After initially responding that my client should submit a first draft, I remembered that the letter had already been written by a different client a couple of years ago. It goes like this: Dear
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A customer buys off you once. A client invests in your products or services for a lifetime. Is your marketing and customer service attracting customers or clients? I walked into the reception at The Marriott Forest of Arden yesterday for the first time in 5 months. The head receptionist looked up at me and said
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It was a brave member of the reception team who offered the “confession” at yesterday’s practice visit that she answers the question “are you accepting any new NHS patients?” that way.Brave because her admission was in front of the whole practice team, including the principal – and me! Her authenticity can only be attributed to
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My recent comments about “attack and defence” dentistry teams seemed to unsettle some readers, who felt that the word “attack” had the scent of that forbidden word in dentistry – “selling”. So it was with relief that, earlier this week, I heard a client describe his two teams as “finders” and “minders”. Perfect. The “finders”
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Its a Chris Barrow invention – re-instigated by the fact that my pants are suddenly tight around the waist. Inspired by my frustration at watching Sunday’s London Marathon but not taking part. So there are now 5 banned substances until such time as my trousers fit: 1. alcohol 2. potato 3. pasta 4. rice 5.
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I would love to do this on a Saturday afternoon… He’s Manchester’s Hoochie Coochie Man. Have a good weekend.

I had a meetup with Barbara Trotter (my former business manager at The Dental Business School) and Tim Thackrah, principal of Elmsleigh House Dental Clinic in Farnham, Surrey. Tim became a client quite a few years ago now (maybe 5 years?) and became a close friend along the way. Nowadays, his practice is at maximum
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“There isn’t a car for hire anywhere in Gatwick – you have no chance whatsoever. No point in trying the other companies – I can tell you that every vehicle in the airport is either out on hire or reserved. I suggest you get a train into London and then back out to Farnham from
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Interesting little story that you can read here:The practice in question is just a few miles from where I live but not one of our clients.