NEW 360-Degree Spa Experience
October 24, 2008 by dr. lam · Leave a Comment
Our spa event last night was tremendously well attended (with over 200 people) and was truly a success. Watch the video of the event. In order to enhance your experience with our spa, I have spent the past 2 weeks tirelessly expanding and creating an improved website for my spa (www.spawb.com). I put together 21 Quicktime Virtual 360 tours that I think you will enjoy perusing. I also put together a single 18 minute video tour of the spa that I segmented into 11 shorter clips that highlight each of our wonderful services. I expanded and updated our team section so that you can get to know our wonderful team, and I took the promotional photographs for our spa as well (since the photographer we hired did not live up to the expectations I had). I also just started putting together a new section entitled, “Spa Video Demos/Tutorials” in which the members and my team discuss with you our unique services (including one video of my taking a hydrotherapy bath!) I hope you can come to our premier spa and enjoy a non-virtual experience. We look forward to serving you.
Celebrate Everything, Part 3 of Defining Culture
October 23, 2008 by dr. lam · Leave a Comment
Herb Kelleher, Founder of Southwest Airlines Playing Doctor
Fortune Magazine stated in its 1995 Corporate Reputations survey: “There is a growing concern that companies cannot live by numbers alone. The one thing that set the top ranking companies in the survey apart is their robust cultures.” I would agree.
The one thing that I try to do almost every single day with as many staff members as possible is to share with them our success stories. Oftentimes, we tend to focus so much on how many units of Botox to draw up, did we get the proper medical clearance for next week’s patient, did the patient get the proper follow-up visit assigned, etc. that we forget why we are doing what we are doing.
I believe that my entire staff believes that we are here to “change and transform lives.” That in essence is another credo that we have. Along those lines, when I get a patient testimonial (written or video) back or a beautiful before and after photograph or a verbal testimonial, we stop all the presses and we celebrate for a moment why we are who we are and why we do what we do.
Southwest Airlines is perhaps the paragon of culture. They celebrate everything. There is always a party going on. Although we make it a point to celebrate birthdays, holidays, and other milestones, we celebrate why we are here every day every waking moment when we see how a life has been touched and transformed. I had a patient say to me at the consultation last week, “I hope you are as good as how much your staff says you are. It is unbelievable.” I just smiled.
Our Credo, S.A.M. L.A.M., Part 2 of Defining Culture
October 22, 2008 by dr. lam · Leave a Comment
I really like the word “Credo” instead of “Mission Statement”. I have always used the word “Mission Statement” until I read The New Gold Standard on Ritz Carlton’s legendary service. The word credo for all of you Latin neophytes (I took and taught Latin for four excruciating years!) means “I believe”. I think that my staff must buy in to our “credo” and know it. Before I give you my credo, here’s the Ritz Carlton’s:
The Ritz-Carlton is a place where the genuine care
and comfort of our guests is our highest mission.
We pledge to provide the finest personal service and
facilities for our guests who will always enjoy a warm,
relaxed, yet refined ambience.
The Ritz-Carlton experience enlivens the senses,
instills well-being, and fulfills even the unexpressed
wishes and needs of our guests.
I really love the last part, “fulfills even the unexpressed wishes and needs of our guests.” I think my staff does a lot of that without my prompting. They are truly hospitalitarians. (For my blog on my spawb site on hospitalitarians, click here.)
Now, here’s my credo. It is a simple mnemonic, my name, SAM LAM. (Thank goodness my name is not Alberto Gonzales. That would be hard to remember.) The “SAM” stands for Serve Always Mentality which is focused on how we serve our loyal patient base, putting the consumer first with the mind of serving always at the core. “LAM” is not focused on the patient at all but on each individual staff member. Remember we are all essentially selfish people, “WIIFM” (what’s in it for me.) L stands for Laugh: I want my staff to come to work every day and have a blast. A stands for achieve: I want them to come to work and feel self-actualized on the Maslow’s triangle. They should learn something every day and feel as if they are growing. M is for Mentor: I believe that as a team our goal is to mentor the next person next to us. We can’t oftentimes motivate the unmotivated but we can inspire the uninspired.
If you call my office or come in as a patient, every one of my staff members should be able to recite our credo by memory. I instilled this into them about a year or more ago, and I do occasionally quiz them on it. I hope you guys find your own credo. In my EO forum group, I learned an interesting thing is that a family can also have their own credo. Perhaps if you are not part of a company where you are in a position to create or sustain a credo, you could try this at home to define the culture where perhaps it matters most, with your family.
LFP ANNOUNCES 2008 PATIENT SATISFACTION AWARD!!!
October 21, 2008 by dr. lam · Leave a Comment
I am interrupting my blog for today (the 2nd part on defining culture, which will be postponed until tomorrow but this blog is actually rather on target for this theme) to announce the results from Allergan’s independent patient satisfaction survey and the rare distinction we received for our 2008 Patient Satisfaction Award. Congratulations to all of my hard-working staff members at LFP for their great work and for winning this prestigious award.
We scored almost perfect 5.0s across the board and received incredible written words of support from our randomly selected patients. What is great is Jan, our Allergan rep, said our results look so good that it almost looks as if we “cherry picked” the best patients for opinions. But she witnessed several times how the surveys we sent out were entirely random. Just as a reminder our STAFF satisfaction score last year was a perfect 10: Jan said that was the first time in her 12 year history doing this job that she every saw a perfect 10 across the board from every staff member on satisfaction.
Too often, many companies pay lip service to quality customer service but they have no metrics on defining customer satisfaction. Here at LFP, customer service is job #1 and we have proved our merit with the 2008 survey results, which I have published in their entirety. Also, watch my video log summarizing the results.
Ladies and Gentlemen Serving Ladies and Gentlemen, Part 1 of Defining Culture
October 20, 2008 by dr. lam · Leave a Comment
Horst Schulze, the former president of the Ritz Carlton, penned his famous Ritz Carlton motto, “Ladies and Gentlemen Serving Ladies and Gentlemen” at the tender age of 15 for a term paper in hotel school. Mr. Schulze explains how he came up with these famous words, “I started in the hotel business when I was 14 years old as a busboy. When my mother took me to the hotel to work for the first time, she said, ‘We could never go to this hotel. This is only for important people. For important, fine people. So you’re lucky. Behave yourself. Wash your hands.’ She was a typical mother. I went to the hotel and the general manager talked to my mother and me for 15 minutes and told us we could never be like the guests who came to his hotel. ‘So don’t ever get jealous. This is for Ladies and Gentlemen–very important people.’
“By the time I started working in the restaurants, I knew the guests were very important. But a few months later I realized that the maitre d’ I watched every day was just as important because every guest was proud when he talked to them. Why? Because he was a first-class professional. He was somebody special–because of the excellence he created for the guests. So when I went to hotel school about a year and a half later, the teacher asked me to write a story describing what I felt about the business. And I wrote about the maitre d’ at my hotel. I titled it, ‘Ladies and Gentlemen Serving Ladies and Gentlemen.’ I wrote we could be excellent like he was…absolute excellence. When you walked into a room, you know he was there. In any moment all of us who serve can be Ladies and Gentlemen, just like the guests. I think it’s a powerful thing that shouldn’t be missed by the wonderful people in the industry. They should understand that.”
I truly believe that my fine staff that work with me are true representatives of the motto. They are real Ladies and Gentlemen. As much as I expect my staff to treat you as Ladies and Gentlemen. I expect you to treat them as Ladies and Gentlemen. Remember that all of us in life are Ladies and Gentlemen serving Ladies and Gentlemen.