Would you like some good news?

I am not sure about the rest of you, but I have got to a point where I don’t really want to listen to the news or read the papers as it’s all bad news. If it’s not about the eurozone, it’s about the bad and unseasonable weather, if it’s not about the weather, it’a about some other disaster.

We all need a bit of good news in our lives so here’s a picture that I took recently, guess where the rainbow ends?

The answer isn’t Waitrose, but for those of you not lucky enough to have yet visited Evolve, we are situated just behind Waitrose on this picture, and that’s where the rainbow ends. Why have I posted this picture in relation to good news?

It’s very simple really, it you want to have a better life, smile more. Many studies have shown that people who smile are more likely to be trusted, to earn more, to find a life partner and be happy. However, this is easier said than done, in a recent BACD study 32% of respondents said that they didn’t like their smile or hid it in photos, not much smiling going on there.

There are some really simple ways to improve your smile:

• Brush your teeth twice a day and floss once a day
• See a dentist and a dental hygienist regularly
• If you wear lipstick, wear pink rather than red, it makes you teeth appear whiter
• Have old, discoloured fillings replaced
• Consider having some minor reshaping done, rounded edges to teeth look younger than sharp corners
• Have some bonding done to smooth out little chips
• Talk to your dentist about tooth whitening, either home or in-surgery whitening, just make sure that home trays are included
• Use one of the many rapid or invisible brace systems to move your teeth into the right position

There are many ways to improve your smile, you just need to talk to your dentist.

Start smiling today and notice the difference.

How nice is the loo?

If you have ever read this blog before, you may have noticed that I am keen on customer  service in any industry, I am also interested in how other companies generate business as Evolve is a relatively new dental practice and we are still growing, so monitor where all our patients come from. This week we has an interesting experience as we are looking for a new contractor to carry out our general cleaning.

We have used a local company pretty much since we opened and have been very happy with the service that we have received. When we ask our patients what they like about Evolve, often the response is that we are nice and clean. We are looking for a new contractor as our regular cleaner is retiring so it’s a good opportunity to see if there is a more competitive service available. As it happened a cleaning company cold called us and we arranged a meeting.

It became apparent after a short time that their sales strategy was to be fairly derogatory about our current cleaner. At no point did we say that we were unhappy with our current situation and they didn’t take the time to find out why we were looking for a new contractor. There was an incorrect assumption that we are unhappy with our current cleaner and so want a new one. After a while, I started to become insulted  by suggesting the cleaner was not doing a good job, thus suggesting that we have been fools to continue to employ them. I would like to stress that I have incredibly high standards in the care we deliver to all our patients, this includes the level of cleaning in the general areas. After all is the loo isn’t clean, how do you know our hands and instruments are clean? I strongly believe you can judge an establishment by the quality of it’s loo. How many times have you been to a wonderful restaurant and been disappointed by the lack of attention when it comes to the loo?

So  my take home message this week is never make assumptions about someone else’s work, and if you really want to gauge the quality of an establishment, check out their loo.