The E-Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Don’y Work and What to Do About It (Edition: Third Edition) by Michael E. Gerber
If you feel as if you’re business revolves around you and would fall apart without you, then this book will be an eye-opener. As our family grew, Dr. Pinto and I realized that we needed to find a way to keep Deering Dental running whether we were there or not. It simply wasn’t possible to wear all the hats at work and home. This book helped us elevate our systems and develop ways of getting things done that didn’t require our constant oversight, which in turn has meant fewer mistakes and smoother guest experience.
80/20 Sales and Marketing by Perry Marshall
We all know the old adage, If you try to please everyone, you’ll end up pleasing no one. This goes for your business as well. This book will help you realize who your business is best suited to serve and how to attract more of your ideal clients. At Deering Dental, this has meant that we realize that our ideal guest is someone who aligns with our mission of uncompromising care delivered with excellent service. The realization has led us to become Miami’s first Biomimetic dental practice, to go out of network with insurance in order to maintain a higher standard of care, limit our schedule so that you never have to wait, and extend reservation times so your doctor can spend more time with you.
Unreasonable Hospitality by Will Guidara
Will Guidara makes a passionate argument for service that goes above and beyond, as well as giving a riveting look into the workings of one of the best restaurants in the world. This is by far my favorite book on the list. If you’re serious about providing great service to your customers, then this book is a must-read. We’ve always taken pride in the service and hospitality we provide, but this book inspired my whole team to push themselves and elevate the experience to a new level as well as inspire some new changes such as cocktails, a guest grooming station, umbrella escorts from and to your car during inclement weather and few other surprises we’re still working on.
Legendary Service by Ken Blanchard
Legendary Service explains what great service is and how it can positively impact your culture, your bottom line, and your team’s happiness in the form of a simple story that anyone can grasp. If you’re in the service industry (hint: if you have customers, then you are in the service industry), you need to read this book and have your entire team read it as well. This is the book we chose for our first team book club and is now required reading for all new hires. With good service becoming so rare these days, we found it hard for new hires to provide you a great experience. And how could they? They had no idea what legendary service was. This book changed that and has helped us make sure that every team member knows precisely what Legendary Service is so that your visits with us always meet your expectations.
Extreme Ownership by Jocko Willink and Leif Babin
Have you ever wondered why (insert whatever recurring problem you’re facing here) keeps happening? Why won’t my team do this? Why do I have to keep fixing this over and over again? We’ve all been there, but guess what? It’s not your team; it’s not your customers; it’s not your spouse, the economy, or any other boogeyman you concoct. Your life is yours; own it. When there’s a problem at our practice, it’s brought to me or Dr. Pinto. We look at each failure as our own and then figure out what system needs to be tweaked, who needs to be trained, or what it was that we weren’t clear enough on that led to a failure. This approach has led to our practice running consistently smoother, better team morale and guest complaints becoming extraordinarily rare.
