A lot of people say, “Marketing is like pulling teeth.” I recently had two wisdom teeth pulled without dental insurance and in my delirium kept thinking of this phrase because my mouth hurts and I just want to get on with helping you with your marketing, not wasting my time ignoring my face. So let’s think on this: can customer service affect Google reviews?
First off, let’s make this clear — marketing is not like pulling teeth! Marketing is way better and doesn’t require a 7-15 day recovery (especially if you’re unlucky like me and had to get an “impacted”, i.e. sideways, one removed).
But I did find myself thinking as a client, not as a business owner or marketer and I got a first hand lesson in how marketing and pulling teeth have a couple of things in common…
Are you abandoning your clients in “peak pain”? (And is your business suffering because of it?)
So with that context in mind, let’s explore the question: can customer service affect Google reviews?
You bet it does! Especially bad customer service or extremely loose explanations of aftercare (doctors!!!). And since reviews are based on an average, a one or two star rating can REALLY affect your Google review score if you only have a few (also looking at medical professionals here).
About two weeks ago on a Wednesday, I discovered an abscess growing under one of my wisdom teeth — and of course the one that’s in sideways. If you’ve had this experience, not much of a “discovering” so much as a “waking up to find really awful feelings in your face and mouth.”
I had to wait until Monday to be seen by any of the local dentists I called (ten)–none of them could squeeze me in as an emergency either. I told them the tooth was “impacted” (their jargon for sideways — the top touches the back of the tooth in front of it). Previously, I was told I likely needed a specialist to remove it. They still were like yeah, come on in!
Having Teeth Pulled Is Super Annoying
So, I go in on Tuesday. The doctor is in the room for less than thirty seconds before I get referred to a specialist because it’s impacted.
Why didn’t they just tell me that over the phone instead of having me come in especially as I mentioned it? If she just needed to see the x-ray to know it wasn’t going to happen, she probably would have known from the phrase “abscess on an impacted wisdom tooth”. Maybe her office staff isn’t that knowledgeable — after all, they are not the doctor.
Was it really just to get a new patient in their system or credit for a referral?
That’s how it feels to me. I leave very frustrated. I consider to myself writing a pissed off review — something I can tell you many clients actually do. I rationalize: at least they had a new patient discount so the cost was super reasonable. So I told myself: inexpensive visit, office staff was probably ignorant, and I really liked the people in the office and its vibe.
So, what did I do?
Nothing! Basically what most clients do when they have an annoying experience, but are charged fairly and received good+ customer service. Really, it was the nurse that helped me out and took the x-rays that I liked — not the doctor: I spent less than two minutes with the doctor. The front desk lady was nice and told me how much their new patient special saved me — several hundred dollars. A relief that it was mostly a waste of time, not time and money.
Will I go back to that dentist or leave them a positive Google review?
Maybe. But probably not. Overall, not really the best experience for a customer to have to wait to be told to wait again when I was clear about the problem up front. But that is the nature of a business that is only open 9-4 Monday through Friday too. (As you can likely tell, I’m significantly more reasonable about angry feelings than a lot of people are — as can be attested by reviews of that dentist and the specialist I was referred to where some people were not so happy.)
So, I go about my life until the next appointment by basically ignoring that I’m alive and watching TV and playing video games.
Seeing The Specialist
They let me know right away it was outrageously priced as the consult alone was $400 and I had to sign a waiver agreeing to pay that to even be let into the back.
I bring in “someone to drive me home” as they requested. They didn’t tell me how important this person would be to my recovery. They also didn’t tell me or the person anything specific. They told them to take me home, pick up a prescription, and when I’m coherent start on the follow-up protocol.
So, a few things get screwed up and I’m loopy as all get out from the Ketamine or whatever they shot me up with — I take out the gauze too soon for instance. My ride is an older woman who can’t read small text and didn’t really consider asking them questions. Man, there is nothing like trying to read four pages of teeny tiny text while anesthesia is wearing off. Hard to say the least.
But what’s interesting is I had a similar experience to the last office: I liked the people. The doctor seemed nice but I saw him for like three minutes while conscious. The nurses were really nice and their X-ray machine was cooler than the other office and it made noises like from a 1950s sci-fi show. They asked me what I listened to on the way in and when I told them death metal, they put it on. It was bizarre.
Then, they put on this video that explained very little in a painfully long time. Soooooo boring (and I do things like read Heidegger for fun — you know it’s boring if I’m bored). It only explained potential side effects and basically nothing about recovery. Meanwhile, recovery is simple: keep biting on the gauze until bleeding slows or stops. Have a liquid diet for a few days. Brush, floss, and use a prescription mouthwash with a q-tip. After day five, use the syringe thing to spray into the gaping hole in your mouth while it closes about 1/4 mm a day.
The price was so intensely extreme it was rather disheartening, but I was seeing a specialist and paying out of pocket for it and needed the surgery ASAP. So I paid.
Then, everything was made ready and we got on with the surgery. Again, the people were nice, but I was zonked out for 90% of it.
Where Does Customer Service Come Into This?
I have already been speaking of the customer service in office, but my real issue is with the aftercare and the poor explanation of it.
I woke up basically in the car going what in the hell is this crap in my mouth? So, I took out the gauze about ten minutes early and didn’t replace it. My ride got the medications from the pharmacy for me. Despite the fact that I told them I have an intolerance to ibuprofen, it’s more than half of the pain relief protocol. But I followed the directions on the paperwork and the medicine bottles to a tee — and take extra tylenol and aspirin to dull the pain rather than ibuprofen, their recommendation. And then, about five days in, I run out of pain medication and again, wait until Monday.
I call them as it says on the paperwork to do if you need more medication. Simple right?
I call, talk to the nurse… She tells me that I’m in “peak pain” right now and so they have to see me again to give me another prescription. Boy would I have only taken them to sleep if I’d have known that or you know, the extremely verbose paperwork explained that. And since the initial appointment basically tapped me out and I couldn’t afford another several hundred dollar appointment, I was stuck with OTC pain medications for the remaining days of my recovery. You know, during “peak pain”. I tried the ibuprofen they sent me home with (despite my intolerance) and it was really unpleasant…
So am I a happy customer?
What do you think? Does this sound like a path to a happy client?
Well, in case we’re on different pages here: I’m livid. And in agonizing pain during a period they know is “the peak”, but they won’t give me anymore pain medication. (They only gave me 20 5mg pills: it’s not like I was having a party I took them every six-ten hours as recommended.) I have a several inch cut in my mouth that opens directly to my jaw bone where they know I have nerves running right through because they took special (read: hella expensive) x-rays to see this so they could avoid it. And nonetheless, I still have tingling feelings all over my face and might have to get more work done. Yay upon yay.
All the while, medicating this with Excedrin and Tylenol. You know, those things that barely get rid of a headache for what is pretty intensely distracting pain and related feelings (nothing like the left side of your lips or the middle of your cheek going numb for no reason).
You know what I have been thinking about for days in absolute pain and barely able to do anything productive? Flame reviewing them 1 stars from my numerous Google accounts.
Am I going to do that?
No. But do I feel like it you bet ‘cha. And have other people actually done it? Oh yeah.
And look: I get it, there are all kinds of restrictions on pain medications and malpractice and… But also understand that my client experience is to suffer through 2/3rds of my recovery time because they didn’t give me enough pain medication — unless of course I want to pay them hundreds more money out of pocket for what is essentially a $12 prescription. Wouldn’t it just make more sense to give me more medication from the beginning or make a follow-up visit part of my excessive payment? I would have paid more at the time. But am I going to figure out how to borrow money for another appointment? No. I already maxed out CareCredit.
Ah the joys of bootstrapping a new business and having a few thousand dollar emergency reset your plans. These are really the days you look back on fondly — not!
I really loved the phrase “peak pain” coupled with a no without another appointment. That really comes across as extra stupid in my book. And I think few people in my situation would have felt differently. Would you?
So how does this apply to you?
I sincerely hope you were able to grab the meaning of this article: piss poor aftercare policies and customer service are almost more important than how you deliver the service. The first dentist’s office, I literally just paid for good service. I know “the x-rays” — you also know they really overcharge for those things unless they have a trained radiologist who can interpret them (and you’re paying for their experience), right?
The surgeon was nice and I think did a good job (I have nothing to compare it to).
But my healing time has been super annoying and painful. I had a bit of relief for five of the last eight days and I likely still have about 5-7 before this is completely healed. The last three days have been miserable to say the least. And that has completely soured my experience. I’m thinking thoughts like was this even worth doing? Should I have tried to wait? Would the antibiotics have just fixed it for now?
It set me back a lot financially. Totally sabotaged my November business plans because it’s a couple week recovery time. And I’m now just past the “peak” part of “peak pain” to the denouement of “peak pain”. Or hell, maybe I’ve just gotten used to it!
But for the doctor, their care and concern is with their potential issues with prescribing and malpractice and not the client experience. They literally know that there is “peak pain” about 4-10 days in. I would have been happy with four more pills just so I could easily sleep those nights.
I feel abandoned.
So something for all of us to consider is if we’re abandoning our clients during peak pain?
Are you abandoning your clients in peak pain?
Even though I strive to make my business focused on walking people through pain and billing after successful work, I’ve reconsidered this for myself with the way I charge and setup client packages. There are places I’ve realized I can be of more help to people when they need it most. And I’ve adjusted my packages to address this issue. I don’t want to leave clients in peak pain or frustration. I want them to know they can reach out and we can make it right together within a day or two. I never want to leave a client as frustrated, abandoned, and in pain like I have been.
So if nothing else, today, consider your client journey. (The steps your customer goes from frustration, pain, or lacking to success or ownership.)
Where do they start? Where do you take them? How far do they have to go themselves? How much is the expense for the client — will they truly be able to do the work?
And this is a place I differ from a lot of marketing companies: if you don’t have the capital to run paid ads well for a set period with no return, that is not the path I’ll recommend. While advertising is often equatable to trading pennies for dollars, it does take some time and a little pain to get most campaigns optimized. I always strive to make the first ad run the best and often do, but it’s just not always the case.
And that’s true in every industry: sometimes, the equipment or training you have are not right for the problem at hand. Sometimes they are and that’s amazing! But are we setting our clients up for failure by leaving them to think we’re going to get the most magical possible result when reality tells us results are on a spectrum?
Probably not! It’s good for clients to be optimistic, but foolhardy and naive is not optimistic. It’s being asinine. Hope for the best. Plan for the worst. End up in the middle. That’s reality.
And this is exactly why I’m so frustrated with the second dentist. If they had just said anywhere in the paperwork that no additional medication would be disbursed without a follow-up exam, I would have planned my week differently. Instead, they write, “The effects of pain medications vary widely among individuals. If you … anticipate needing more medication … call our clinic. Other over-the-counter medications can be extremely dangerous if taken with these prescriptions. Do not exceed the dose on the bottle…” Meanwhile, ya boy needs two Tylenol every two hours to even combat the pain in a reasonable manner.
Don’t leave your clients up shit creek with only the option being to suffer or to pay you more money to help them with the ramifications of the initial problem solution you supposedly already helped them with.
If you do, trust me someone will flame review you one-star reviews. And if they’re a marketer, they might be thinking about paying a lot of people on Fiverr to do it. Just saying…
So think to yourself: are you abandoning any of your clients? If so, where? What else might they need? Wouldn’t that have been nice to point out during the initial meeting?
And if you are doing this — stop it. Reconsider your packages. Think about your client journey — are they truly happy or “fixed” when you stop working together? Is “the end” actually the end? And how would addressing this in your business make your clients raving fans. After all, that is the point of marketing — to make your client think of your company as their preferred brand with promises delivered and kept. How can you focus on helping them to see that? By realizing the client journey includes you and not you. They could go with someone else or do nothing. Why hire you? Why be happy with you afterwards? Are they left in pain with nothing to fix it except a toxic dose of Tylenol or ibuprofen that they’re intolerant to? (Obviously focused on this example, but extrapolate!)
And if you’re now sure you need to focus on the follow-up and customer service, but aren’t sure where to start, call me for a free consultation at (720) 716-1297 and we can talk pain from pulling teeth or whatever your clients hate and how you can better address their needs because you never know how customer service affect Google reviews.
