I popped down to Brighton last weekend in need of some well earned relaxation.
I woke up Saturday morning to a sun soaked south east coast feeling absolutely great.
But then disaster struck when one of my teeth began feeling very wobbly indeed (I’m being a tad dramatic, it was just a mini crisis).
I wanted to get it sorted straight away. So I Googled ’24 hour dentists in Brighton’ and two numbers came up. That’s just two from hundreds of other listings for ‘Dentist Brighton’.
The first I called was fully booked. Thankfully the second could fit me in as his last appointment of the day.
I got to the practice on time and was met by a nice receptionist in a very plush and very full waiting room. Saturday opening seems to be working well for these guys.
I paid £50 to get looked at and £50 for the treatment to correct my wobbly tooth. Sorted.
It got me thinking though about why more dentists didn’t open on Saturdays. These guys opened from 9am-2pm and the friendly receptionist told me they were always running at full capacity.
Is your business available when your customers need you?
It was a great example of making your business available to do more business.
The opposite of that was an example of what a friend told me happened to him recently. He’s in a need of a new fireplace and enquired with a shop to see if someone could pop round, have a look and give him a quote.
He was a serious buyer but any potential deal was broken when he was told that it would be £25 to pop round (his house is five minutes from the shop). The £25 was refundable on an order but a rival company said they did quotes for free and guess who he got in and placed the order with?
The firm charging £25 was being small minded and making themselves ‘unavailable’ in the eyes of my friend.
At My News we try to be as available as possible. My mobile number is printed in the magazines as well as all of our office contact details. I regularly take calls ‘out of hours’ and always aim to get back to people who’ve called me within 4 hours.
If you are running a business I’d love to hear your examples of going the extra mile and making yourself more available than your competition.
Thanks for reading
Nik
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