Are You Hearing but Not Listening?
In order to connect with your patients you need to LISTEN to what they are saying.
I had the opportunity to spend some time in a SIDECAR client’s office recently; which is by far one of my favorite things to do. I get to see first-hand how well a doctor is applying the new SIDECAR training to his/her practice and more importantly the bottom-line results that are occurring.
Golden Tickets
In this office the number of Golden Tickets that were being missed, side-stepped, or never addressed during the course of one morning was staggering!
To refresh, a Golden Ticket is something a patient may say or a question they may ask that opens the door to securing a referral, clearing up a patient’s confusion, or gives the doctor and staff an opportunity to go the extra mile to deliver on a great customer experience.
Here’s a few examples transcript that I heard:
Example 1
Patient: “Doc, I have a friend at work who is having headaches just like me. Is there any connection?”
Doctor: “It’s possible. Turn your head to the right”.
He was hearing but NOT listening!
Example 2
Patient: “Doc, my neck is really bad today”
Doctor: “What happened?”
Patient: “I was in the shampoo bowl at the beauty shop”
Doctor: *Nothing*
Crickets! You could feel the tension in the room as the patient was waiting for a response and the Doctor just continued working away, oblivious to the patient’s true needs.
Example 3
Patient: “My mid-back is really sore today.”
Doctor: “Right side or left?”
Patient: “Right”
Doctor: *Nothing*
The Doctor never acknowledged the patient’s concern, palpate the area of complaint, let alone make an adjustment!
Conclusion
I could site several more examples of lost opportunities to connect with a patient. The problem was this doctor was hearing but not listening!
Before you dismiss the importance of this lesson by saying, “That’s not me!” Think about it, how well do you listen to your spouse, your team or your coach?
During the debrief between this Doctor and myself, I pointed out to him all the specific examples of where exactly he was hearing but NOT listening. I provided him with an analogy as we sat in his office. I could HEAR the music playing in the background in the reception area, but I was not LISTENING to it turk-eczanesi.com/. My focus was entirely on my conversation with the doctor, not the music. I could not name the tune, the artist or even the genre, yet I could still hear it.
Listening is the most critical component of communication. If you are not listening and only hearing you too are missing Golden Tickets to build your practice and serve more people.
Dr. Douglas Sea, SIDECAR
