Smiles, Faces, and Straight Teeth: Editorial

Editorial
Smiles, Faces, and Straight Teeth

Robert J. Isaacson
When someone comes into your office, is this your the jargon means. What really happens is that if I like the
chance to educate them on why they should want the best way I was treated and if I developed trust in the dealer, I
possible smile, face, or straight teeth? Some might think so buy.
and devote their marketing effort toward demonstrating the In either of these vignettes, all that can really happen is
merits of those qualities. for the lawyer or the car dealer to fail to sell themselves to
If you talk with a marketing consultant, however, you me. Services and, from a consumer’s standpoint, the good-
would probably find that that is not the case at all. The ness of many products are intangible and, at best, can only
truth is that most people come to your office already sold be evaluated superficially in advance of their purchase.
on the merits of these attributes. They came to see you to What we are evaluating is the seller and how much trust
learn about what is involved in obtaining them. The fact is we feel we can put in that person to deliver the services or
that we are selling trust in our services, and this means we goods in the way that we expect. I don’t have to think hard
are selling ourselves. to remember experiences where I owned product X, and
While at the airport the other day, I bought a book, which when product X didn’t live up to my expectations or the
I found worthy of note. The book is called ‘‘Selling the trust I had placed in it, I tried product Y. This is product
Invisible’’ and is by Harry Beckwith. This book is directed Y’s chance to capture me, and if it exceeds my expecta-
at how goods and services are marketed in this country— tions, I become an ardent and vocal enthusiast for product
the forces to which we (including our patients) are all sub- Y. The arcane books on marketing today don’t tell you to
jected today. Beckwith begins by telling us that today three meet the expectations of the consumer; they tell you to
out of four Americans work in service companies and that exceed them.
by 2005, this number will be eight in ten. Where we used You can see where I am going with this. Orthodontics is
to identify ourselves by products produced, today’s product clearly a service that cannot be evaluated in advance of its
is service, and he says, ‘‘service marketing is not product purchase. What we sell is a service, and that means we are
marketing.’’ He’s right! We tend to select products by their selling ourselves. Orthodontics is not all that different from
merits, their tangible substance. Services are selected and most purchases people make except that our product is very
evaluated almost entirely on trust and faith. personal, and that makes it an even tougher consumer de-
If I needed an attorney, I might ask a close friend or cision. The people who enter your office already want the
even another attorney for their opinion. This would provide best smiles, faces, and straight teeth. They are there to try
me with an anecdotal idea of how that person liked a par- to develop enough trust in you to commission you to give
ticular attorney. But there is no information I can collect their child, or maybe even themselves, the best possible
that will permit me to know in advance how well that at- outcome.
torney will solve my legal problem. Engaging an attorney Practice management people market a variety of slants
is clearly a matter of how well I like the person and how on how to succeed, but they all are saying the same thing.
much trust I developed in talking with that person. There is a reason why some variation of the Golden Rule
It isn’t a lot different when you buy a product like a car. exists in almost all religions and philosophies. When you
We are all busy and our time is valuable. I go to the dealer are a consumer, you want to be treated nicely and you are
already sold on buying a new car and likely even biased impressed by anyone who goes beyond the call of duty—
toward the goodness of that brand of car. If the dealer precisely what your prospective patients want. The rela-
shows me what is under the hood, I nod appreciatively, tionships you build and the quality of the service you de-
even if I am not even remotely knowledgeable as to what liver will last long after the cost is forgotten.
Angle Orthodontist, Vol 72, No 4, 2002 iv

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Editorial

Smiles, Faces, and Straight Teeth

Angle Orthodontist, Vol 72, No 4, 2002 iv

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