Unfortunately, the translators did not know what Suzuki had in mind, and they may have chosen the wrong meaning – that the Suzuki cabinet had decided to “ignore” the request for surrender. The Japanese cabinet was understandably furious – but it was too late; Tokyo radio flashed it to America. The atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima August 6 by the allies who believed that the Japanese government had refused to accept surrender. Folks are still uncertain how accurate these accounts are, but it’s an amazing story of consequence and the delicate nature of how we communicate with each other and what communication gets changed along the way.
Facts get changed, twisted, tweaked, and corrupted the more they travel from person to person. I shared a great article from my friend, Larry Guzzardo, last week about dental office communication and how important the “little things” are – verbal or non-verbal – reminding me of the story about Hiroshima. Articles, phone conversations, and emails can get tainted and changed, influenced by the experiences and colorations of different personalities and perspectives. In the dental office, “patient experience” is a powerful thing to share, as long as the message is clear. Remember the “telephone game” you played when you were a kid? You tell the little girl next to you a story, then she tells the little boy next to her the same story, but it changes a little bit. That story goes around the circle till it comes out the other side altogether different, with little bits of each courier still clinging to it. The true story was lost in translation.
A patient trying to share a positive dental experience is challenged in much the same way. This is the era of “YouTube/Facebook/Ipad/Iphone”, incredible internet bandwidth, and heavy video content on the web. If you aren’t considering trying to capture your patient experiences and share them in a simple – yet unfiltered – way, you might be missing out on the most genuine way to share who you really are and what your patients think about your dental experience. Particularly when your dentistry offers profound quality-of-life improvements that patients might like to share with others.
I speak with dentists every day that have challenges with translating a profitable business into lasting wealth in retirement. I always struggle to share the intricacies of how other dentists, with the same financial obstacles, overcame those challenges. Everyone’s financial goals are unique and, therefore, the solution becomes highly customized. Sharing these success strategies, to put their unique experience in my own words, always fails me. It’s no different for the dentist. “If only this patient could tell that patient what a positive experience they had with my dental team”, they might say. Some of the very best dental marketing firms that I partner with are effectively using video in their on-line marketing strategies with dentists.
Written testimonials have long been effective but they fail to directly translate the emotion, tone, and sincerity that video can. They allow the voice inflection, body language, and joy of a happy patient to translate purely without getting diluted in translation. Technology has allowed us to get out of our own way, so to speak, letting a happy patient express themselves. Try to capture some of those great patient experiences and communicate them effectively to achieve an authentic reflection of that dental office you’re so proud of.
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