Dr. Chris Phelps
Appearances
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Mastering Client Mindsets for Better Engagement with Dr. Chris Phelps
I did a direct mail piece and I ran it to the same list of people for 10 years and I got a good return. But after I learned these principles and after I learned how to apply them and amplify these things, I stripped down that direct mail piece and I rebuilt it and tried to add as many of the influence principles as I could.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Mastering Client Mindsets for Better Engagement with Dr. Chris Phelps
In the environment, when they're in the chair, we let them watch TV, but we control the content because the worst thing they can do is watch CNN or Fox News 10 minutes before I get in there. And they're saying, holy crap, stock market's down, Bitcoin's down. And then I come in and go, oh, by the way, you need two crowns. And they're like, the hell I do.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Mastering Client Mindsets for Better Engagement with Dr. Chris Phelps
I just lost all this money in the stock market. So it totally creates the wrong mindset versus if I have come in and put on fixer upper. Here's a program where people have something at the start of the show where they think has no value. But what do they do? They invest time, money, and expert advice. And what comes out on the back end with that investment?
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Mastering Client Mindsets for Better Engagement with Dr. Chris Phelps
A beautiful house. Metamorphosis, change, rehabilitation, renovation. That's the mindset.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Mastering Client Mindsets for Better Engagement with Dr. Chris Phelps
That's what pre-suasion is. You're priming the pump for a yes to get them in a mindset that's going to be more receptive to what you want to ask and say yes to it before they ever get to you.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Mastering Client Mindsets for Better Engagement with Dr. Chris Phelps
You can pre-suede them by sending texts, images. If you can send pictures, images create mindsets. You could text them questions. So asking commitment questions before you get to them can automatically create a better mindset to make them more receptive. In the pre-suasion book, Cialdini talks about the study where they surveyed random grocery shoppers at a random grocery store on a Tuesday.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Mastering Client Mindsets for Better Engagement with Dr. Chris Phelps
And they asked them, they're like, hey, we're with the soft drink company. We'd love for you to try this new soda. Can I get all your personal information so I can ship you a free case of this? And then you just tell us what you think. And, of course, the majority of people are like, I'm not giving you my personal information, right?
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Mastering Client Mindsets for Better Engagement with Dr. Chris Phelps
The next part of the study, they didn't ask them the main request. They started out by asking a commitment question first. So they walk into the store and a different group of researchers say, hey, we're just doing a little market survey to all of our customers. Quick question. Do you consider yourself to be adventurous or not? Yes or no?
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Mastering Client Mindsets for Better Engagement with Dr. Chris Phelps
And when you ask somebody a question where the answer kind of has a yin and a yang, where society is going to view one part of the answer as positive, but the opposite of that word as a negative. Well, automatically, because if you're not adventurous, then what are you? You're not adventurous. You're boring. You're boring, right? And nobody wants to be associated with that.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Mastering Client Mindsets for Better Engagement with Dr. Chris Phelps
So what your brain does is it starts searching back through its memory banks, and all it needs, it's crazy, is one piece of evidence to justify the yes to the good answer. So it's like, well, that was that one time at band camp or that one time in college, right? Yes, I'm adventurous. So 100% of the people said, yes, I'm adventurous. Okay. But guess who they are now in this moment?
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Mastering Client Mindsets for Better Engagement with Dr. Chris Phelps
And guess what adventurous people like to do? Try new things. Try new things. And guess what? Then the next group of researchers, 20 minutes later, ask them, try this new thing. And overwhelmingly, the majority said yes. So if you can presuade them with a question in a text before, hey, I'm on the way. Quick question. What do you think about this? What are your thoughts? Are you this or that?
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Mastering Client Mindsets for Better Engagement with Dr. Chris Phelps
Automatically, you got a better chance.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Mastering Client Mindsets for Better Engagement with Dr. Chris Phelps
It was way more than doubled. And he actually went around to each one of them. He said, and just for you, here's an extra one. And just for you, here's an extra one. And just for you. Like really making the time to point out One-on-one, this is for you. Yep. This is for you. And that's gifting? That's reciprocity.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Mastering Client Mindsets for Better Engagement with Dr. Chris Phelps
Giving a gift of significant value automatically creates, if it's significant to them and meaningful and ideally customized for them, in this case, personalized just for you, incites in them an obligation that they feel like they have to give back in kind.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Mastering Client Mindsets for Better Engagement with Dr. Chris Phelps
And just like the opposite of the word consistency, inconsistency, here, what do you call people who don't give, who just take, take, take all the time? Selfish.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Mastering Client Mindsets for Better Engagement with Dr. Chris Phelps
No positive word.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Mastering Client Mindsets for Better Engagement with Dr. Chris Phelps
To me, it's the same analogy as which is more important, persuasion or persuasion. And the truth of the matter is, as I said, this is why I didn't realize how important persuasion was. If the mindset's already a no when they get to you, there's no conversation.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Mastering Client Mindsets for Better Engagement with Dr. Chris Phelps
Well, that's different. Again, if it's top of mind pain, that's one thing. In my world, only about 20% of the population of customers are pain, right? 80%, we're talking about what they need, not what they want. Right. And that's the disconnect. So like persuasion, if the door's already shut, you'd only have, it's hard to persuade. So it's a lot more important from that aspect.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Mastering Client Mindsets for Better Engagement with Dr. Chris Phelps
Yeah, well, you know, it's funny, as you've already pointed out, and for our listeners so that you can tell, I'm an entrepreneur who happens to be a pretty good dentist.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Mastering Client Mindsets for Better Engagement with Dr. Chris Phelps
I feel like marketing and sales is the same. If your marketing's not down and you can't get a customer,
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Mastering Client Mindsets for Better Engagement with Dr. Chris Phelps
And it's been a wild ride these last 21 years.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Mastering Client Mindsets for Better Engagement with Dr. Chris Phelps
Well, there's a couple of ways. Number one is it's deepening your education first, getting you familiar with what's above and beyond the books. And that's how do we activate these principles? Meaning if they are present in a moment, how do you turn them on like a light switch? And then once present and you've activated them, how do you amplify their power?
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Mastering Client Mindsets for Better Engagement with Dr. Chris Phelps
As I said, giving a gift is important, but the type of gift you give is even more important. So there's ways to amplify that situation and take it to another level. How do you, once you've deepened your own knowledge, now it's sometimes you may understand a topic, but people struggle with the application piece. Implementation. Yeah, implementation was key, right?
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Mastering Client Mindsets for Better Engagement with Dr. Chris Phelps
So I found a lot of people struggle with that application and implementation part. So teaching people how to use these things. And for me, it was learning through examples, right? So when I saw the behavioral science examples, that's what gave me the ideas to try that on my patients, right? And the people that were coming to my businesses and my team at the front desk and the doctors that I had.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Mastering Client Mindsets for Better Engagement with Dr. Chris Phelps
And I literally sent it out to the same list I've been mailing to for 10 years, doubled the new patient count. So no matter what you're doing, if you haven't added any level of influence, all you have to do is add one thing and send it right back out to the same people and you'll get a better response.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Mastering Client Mindsets for Better Engagement with Dr. Chris Phelps
And I found those examples transcribed and it helped me create my influence systems that I use as well. So learning knowledge, deepening, and application is key. So we help in that aspect. Some people don't have time for that. They just want the answer.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Mastering Client Mindsets for Better Engagement with Dr. Chris Phelps
So I'm from Charlotte, North Carolina. And in 2003, I joined my wife's dentist, which is kind of apprenticeship thing. That's what you do in dentistry sometimes. And I bought into his business and spent those first couple of years. We had a 10x growth over a seven year period, going to one location to four. And marketing was really the key, really stretching my marketing legs initially.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Mastering Client Mindsets for Better Engagement with Dr. Chris Phelps
Yeah, they're just like, just come solve it for us. Okay, we can do that too, right? So it's a combination of those two things. You're learning versus do you just want somebody to take care of it for you?
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Mastering Client Mindsets for Better Engagement with Dr. Chris Phelps
So they can come right to the website, cialdini.com. There's an online portal. You can purchase the product and you get instant on-demand access with 10 hours of Dr. Cialdini teaching you those activators and amplifiers.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Mastering Client Mindsets for Better Engagement with Dr. Chris Phelps
So right now, last I counted, we've got representation in over 30 countries.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Mastering Client Mindsets for Better Engagement with Dr. Chris Phelps
So it's a lot of talking, a lot of Zoom calls. Luckily, I'm used to talking to a lot because, you know, talking to my patients every day. So it's a lot of talking. It's a lot of spreading the word of influence, because really, I mean, we're targeting obviously organizations, right, who need to be more influential in what they do. We're targeting individuals.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Mastering Client Mindsets for Better Engagement with Dr. Chris Phelps
We're targeting I'm trying to catch them while they're young. Right. So like with ASU University, we just did a Celebrate Cialdini Day this past two days ago. And the goal there was obviously to celebrate his career, but it's through the business school. And we're going to make it to where the business school students are leaving as certified practitioners of persuasion.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Mastering Client Mindsets for Better Engagement with Dr. Chris Phelps
So I can't even imagine like if I had been trained like that in college with this stuff. behind me, how much further my career would have gone and how much faster? What advantages would it have given me back then? So trying to spread influence to not only the U.S., but all countries in those aspects, from the university aspect early on to whatever stage they are in their business careers.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Mastering Client Mindsets for Better Engagement with Dr. Chris Phelps
Well, it started when I got an opportunity to go to an active, independent living retirement community. A patient was in my chair, and we had given her a great experience, and just organically, she just asked me, she was like, hey, have you ever thought about coming out to communities and do a talk? I was like, tell me about your community.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Mastering Client Mindsets for Better Engagement with Dr. Chris Phelps
She goes, well, you know, we've got about 3,500 homes of people my age, active, independent living people. And I was like, okay, so it'd be okay if I came out and did a talk to your whole community? She was like, Yeah, we'd love that. I organized that. I was like, OK, let's do that.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Mastering Client Mindsets for Better Engagement with Dr. Chris Phelps
The challenge was now I got to give a talk and I'm thinking, all right, well, nobody wants to come here about dentistry. So what's going to be my hook? Right. What can I use to get people in the door? And this is actually when I just come back from Napa Valley, California, for the first time. So I get these folks out and I realize 60 of them came out for a seminar.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Mastering Client Mindsets for Better Engagement with Dr. Chris Phelps
for a wine and cheese seminar with dental education. You can't get to Napa, so I'm going to bring Napa to you. Join me for the top five dental reasons affecting the aging population and enjoy some of Napa's wines on meat.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Mastering Client Mindsets for Better Engagement with Dr. Chris Phelps
And so I get these folks out, and I realized during the seminar when I asked them the first question, just curious, how many of you have been to the dentist for any reason in the last year? 10 out of 60 people raised their hand at this first talk. And I was like, oof, that ain't good. How many of you have dental insurance? Okay. The 10 who'd been to the dentist have insurance. Hmm.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Mastering Client Mindsets for Better Engagement with Dr. Chris Phelps
Now I'm starting to get it. How many of you would have gone had you had insurance? The other 50 raised their hand. So automatically... You know, there's a lot of power when you ask your target market questions and they tell you what they use to decide, right? It showed me this barrier, our culture is you don't have insurance, you can't go see a doctor or dentist for any reason.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Mastering Client Mindsets for Better Engagement with Dr. Chris Phelps
So when these folks retired, because my parents were in the same boat at this time, That's the first thing they lost. They kept medical, but they lost dental. And now they go from an abundance mindset, money's coming in every month, to a scarcity mindset. I've only got a certain amount, and it's got to last. So they hang on to it.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Mastering Client Mindsets for Better Engagement with Dr. Chris Phelps
But it came a time where I was bouncing too many things. And sometimes no matter how much you can juggle, your cup always runneth over. So my passion was to be a dentist. I made that decision when I was in seventh grade. So I was still doing clinical dentistry on patients five days a week. At the same time, I'm the CEO of the company. I'm running operations. I'm managing 100 people.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Mastering Client Mindsets for Better Engagement with Dr. Chris Phelps
Well, so then, and this is the point, to make membership plans work, you have to know what people are going to compare it to. In this case, I knew they were going to compare it to buying their own insurance policy, which at the time was too expensive for their mindset. So I had to lower that barrier. So I knew at the time it was going to cost them $600 a year for their own insurance policy.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Mastering Client Mindsets for Better Engagement with Dr. Chris Phelps
Well, I was just guessing at the time. I didn't know what the number was. I just cut it in half. I said, you know what, I'm going to make this a dang good value. It's $300 for the year, two cleanings, two exams, your x-rays, come in for an emergency exam. It doesn't matter, right? So for literally less than $30 a month.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Mastering Client Mindsets for Better Engagement with Dr. Chris Phelps
Okay. And you'll get a 10% discount off anything we do kind of thing. And so that was when I went back the next month, I created the plan because I saw that as the barrier. I presented that. And got so much acceptance because in contrast, automatically what they would pay, they knew they needed it, but they don't want to pay for that. But half the price of their mind. Now it's a good value.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Mastering Client Mindsets for Better Engagement with Dr. Chris Phelps
And that's what and it was still a slow roll. Like the early pioneers were the ones who in the community tried it out because another barrier I realized was that they think. It's too good to be true. It's too good to be true. Sounds great. What's the catch? So it was those early pioneers. I told my team, these folks have to have the best experience ever. We cannot have bad word-of-mouth marketing.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Mastering Client Mindsets for Better Engagement with Dr. Chris Phelps
And as soon as they went back, they told everybody it's legit. It's as good as they say.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Mastering Client Mindsets for Better Engagement with Dr. Chris Phelps
Well, I know as their dentist, as the dental expert, that if they go – they choose the reactive mindset, which is what they were doing, choosing not to go unless it hurt, they're in pain, whatever. That was going to cost them more time, money because of that and visits versus if I could just influence them to get that preventative work done, the cleanings, the whatever.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Mastering Client Mindsets for Better Engagement with Dr. Chris Phelps
it would save them more time, money, and pain down the road. So that's one of our rules for ethics, objectively. Like, if it's truly a win-win for both sides, even though there's going to be some cost to both sides, but if it's really in both our best interest to do this, then why should we both lose?
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Mastering Client Mindsets for Better Engagement with Dr. Chris Phelps
It is. For me, it was what was my overhead per chair per hour cost in my practice. So in any given time, you've got so many chairs. People are sitting in. Those chairs cost you money no matter what.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Mastering Client Mindsets for Better Engagement with Dr. Chris Phelps
There's a burden cost. So what's the burden cost there? Well, if I – and I know they're going to be in the chair twice, so it's times two. So as long as I'm some multiple above that, even though I'm not getting my full price of what I would charge them to be in this chair, I'm not losing money. But for me, the preventative was one thing. We make our money on the dental work.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Mastering Client Mindsets for Better Engagement with Dr. Chris Phelps
But when you get somebody who has a membership plan with a Costco-style model – There's a reason why Costco shoppers spend on average 247% more per trip than Walmart shoppers. And they pay for the right to do it. Why? Because the more I buy, the more I save. Why would I spend money elsewhere when I save here? And so I realized that was the key. We got more treatment acceptance.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Mastering Client Mindsets for Better Engagement with Dr. Chris Phelps
So traditionally somebody would come in and I'm going to present $4,000 to them on the work that they need. Two fillings, two crowns, let's say. Most people, if you just present that straight up, and they compare that to the wants in their life they prefer to spend, they're going to go, yeah, I can't do that. So let me just start with something. I'll do the smallest thing.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Mastering Client Mindsets for Better Engagement with Dr. Chris Phelps
I'm doing all the marketing for the four practices. And after my second son was born, I realized my wife kind of needed me at home and I had trapped myself in my own business. I couldn't be there. So I realized I had to take a hard look in the mirror and go, my mindset was wrong, right? At first, growth for growth's sake had not put me in a good place.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Mastering Client Mindsets for Better Engagement with Dr. Chris Phelps
Let me do the two fillings. Maybe they'll get to the other stuff, but more than likely they don't. In this case, when they see this plan, it's $4,000. Oh, but after your 10% discount as a plan member, you say $400. It's only $36. Wow, $400. Wait, didn't you say this plan was $400? And it includes all my cleanings and other things. Everything else I need is done for the year, taken care of?
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Mastering Client Mindsets for Better Engagement with Dr. Chris Phelps
That's right. Huh. All right, I'll do it. And now they do it all.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Mastering Client Mindsets for Better Engagement with Dr. Chris Phelps
So we talked about reciprocity already, right? Somebody gives you a truly significant gift of value. The obligation is there. You feel the need to give back in kind. But it's really about you showing people that you like them. People tend to reciprocate. If they know you like them, meaning if we like something about them and tell them we like them.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Mastering Client Mindsets for Better Engagement with Dr. Chris Phelps
Or if your customers, when they're done, like this was huge with my patients, ask them to take a picture of me afterwards. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Mastering Client Mindsets for Better Engagement with Dr. Chris Phelps
So I changed my mindset and one of my mentors, Dan Sullivan, said buy back your time. Sometimes you have to subtract and multiply. So I did something nutty and I sold my two best offices, highest revenue, least amount of debt, and took over the two worst ones, freeing up myself from some old partners and could really get back to doing it the way I wanted to do it.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Mastering Client Mindsets for Better Engagement with Dr. Chris Phelps
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Mastering Client Mindsets for Better Engagement with Dr. Chris Phelps
But there's a problem when you take over your two worst businesses. They suck. So problems that were small when you've got three other businesses to go with it and three other partners, a struggling business is your investment. But when you're down to one business and one partner, that's a problem. So I had all these fires like, why weren't my patients coming back for treatment?
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Mastering Client Mindsets for Better Engagement with Dr. Chris Phelps
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Mastering Client Mindsets for Better Engagement with Dr. Chris Phelps
Why do I have to keep telling my team to do stuff, right? Why when the cat was away, the mice kept playing and not doing what they're supposed to do? my associate doctors. Why would I pay for them to go to continuing education courses? And they didn't come back and use it. They didn't put it into practice to help our patients.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Mastering Client Mindsets for Better Engagement with Dr. Chris Phelps
Thank you.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Mastering Client Mindsets for Better Engagement with Dr. Chris Phelps
So all these little things, and I couldn't put my finger on the root cause of the problem. And somebody from Strategic Coach invited me to a workshop, and Dr. Cialdini was the keynote speaker. Never heard of the guy before that. And in 90 minutes, he changed the course of my life. And what year was that? This is 14 years ago. It's 2010. Yep. Right? So absolutely nutty.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Mastering Client Mindsets for Better Engagement with Dr. Chris Phelps
meaning we're going to schedule time for you to schedule these things and plan out how you're going to use your time. Schedule time to schedule time. Schedule time to schedule time. And when they do that, then now they're committed.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Mastering Client Mindsets for Better Engagement with Dr. Chris Phelps
So a group of stem cell clinics I consulted with and created influence systems for, right? All across the country. And by implementing these influence systems, the revenue increased 50% across the board at every clinic. So, obviously, a very good return for what they paid me for that service.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Mastering Client Mindsets for Better Engagement with Dr. Chris Phelps
In dentistry, for instance, when I work with dental practices, their average increase for those that put these things into practice and use them is anywhere from $15,000 to $50,000 more in revenue a month with no change in overhead. It's almost like when they start putting it into practice, you've taken it from just feeding the fish to now they've learned how to fish.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Mastering Client Mindsets for Better Engagement with Dr. Chris Phelps
And they just extrapolate and do better from that point on. So, I mean, for some of these people that have put this stuff into practice, that's why Cialdini calls them small bigs. Small things that can make a huge impact. Popular Cruise Company, for instance, with one email adding a little persuasion to it.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Mastering Client Mindsets for Better Engagement with Dr. Chris Phelps
To make the person who opened it more receptive to the scarcity message of a $500 offer that was going to run out at the end of the year, the cruise company made so much money off of the extra people that were on that ship that they said they could buy another boat.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Mastering Client Mindsets for Better Engagement with Dr. Chris Phelps
And I immediately was like, all right, what's this guy up to? I found his book, read the whole thing in like 24 hours, found out that they did a course here in Phoenix once a year in July of all times, came out here in the heat and did two full days of the workshop training, trying to dive into the problems of those practices.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Mastering Client Mindsets for Better Engagement with Dr. Chris Phelps
They're doing the action. Yeah. So in this kind of case, you have to start with why do people say no to us? Okay. So one reason is there's no relationship. And Dr. Niter, one of our chief trainers, came up and did the research on this. It's called the core motives model of why people do what they do. And so if there's no relationship, people don't say yes.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Mastering Client Mindsets for Better Engagement with Dr. Chris Phelps
If there's uncertainty, any kind of questions are down in their mind, they don't move. It's safer for them to do nothing than to choose. And lack of motivation, no urgency. So when somebody, especially in marketing, they're looking at your advertisement, if they don't respond from the ad directly, there's some uncertainty automatically present holding it back.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Mastering Client Mindsets for Better Engagement with Dr. Chris Phelps
If there's something favorable about it, that's when they go to your website to look for more info. And if that satisfies their search, then they pick up the phone. So uncertainty in advertising is the number one thing you've got to overcome. So to do that on a website, what the research shows is we need three principles to help us.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Mastering Client Mindsets for Better Engagement with Dr. Chris Phelps
Number one, if they don't like you, they're not going to do business with you. So all the research now is showing that you need some kind of welcoming message.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Mastering Client Mindsets for Better Engagement with Dr. Chris Phelps
a picture of the team, a statement from the team, a video welcoming people. We like those who welcome us and we want to do business with those who welcome us. The next two things, principles we can use to attack uncertainty is social proof and authority, okay?
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Mastering Client Mindsets for Better Engagement with Dr. Chris Phelps
So the social proof, instead of having your leads or your reviews somewhere randomly on your website, it needs to be one of the first things people see. So now we show that right above the website address at the top of your website, the first thing they should see as we read top down should be how many reviews do you have and what's the rating. Next thing, welcome message.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Mastering Client Mindsets for Better Engagement with Dr. Chris Phelps
Next thing you're going to see is the authority triggers like Signs of your expertise, your training, your credentials, any awards that you've won. And then you can have more testimonials because each one speaks to your trustworthiness. Oh, my gosh. Years in service, right? Serving this community. And I like to do that in five-year terms, by the way. Five-plus years serving this community.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Mastering Client Mindsets for Better Engagement with Dr. Chris Phelps
Ten-plus years. Fifteen-plus years. So that way you don't have to keep doing it. But if you're only five, five and a half years, guess what? Five-plus sounds better.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Mastering Client Mindsets for Better Engagement with Dr. Chris Phelps
Well, you've got to show evidence that this is not your first rodeo, right? They need to know that you've done this, whatever you're recommending, on lots of people, and they've had good results. So automatically just sharing stories. The other thing I would do is if you've got multiple options, make sure people know that, oh, and by the way, this is our most popular.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Mastering Client Mindsets for Better Engagement with Dr. Chris Phelps
And it left me with so many ideas on, because what really at the key with Cialdini was that he,
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Mastering Client Mindsets for Better Engagement with Dr. Chris Phelps
This is what the majority of our customers choose. So it's great to give your own personal recommendation. That's authority. But when they know that that's what everybody else has done too – Most studies show 15% to 24% increase in that thing. That's key. We talked about the scarcity.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Mastering Client Mindsets for Better Engagement with Dr. Chris Phelps
Hey, $500 off for the first four who respond, and then for every other person who responds, well, I'm sorry I ran out of the $500 ones, but I do have a $100 gift card I could give you. Remember, stop using coupons. People don't like discounts and coupons. Those are entitlements. Repackage it as a gift certificate or a gift card. You're telling me coupons aren't good?
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Mastering Client Mindsets for Better Engagement with Dr. Chris Phelps
I like to repackage them because we feel entitled to discounts and coupons. There's no influence in entitlement. But if we're given a gift as a gift certificate, if it's repackaged, if it's a physical gift card – I had gift cards to my own practice that I gave people. For that very reason. You get a gift card first. Hey, thank you for bringing us. Here's a gift card from us to you.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Mastering Client Mindsets for Better Engagement with Dr. Chris Phelps
showed me one of the principles in particular was the root cause behind all my problems okay one thing so I was like all right if I can get to the heart of that thing because this guy knows what he's talking about then I might have a chance and most everybody always asked me what was the one thing right well there's this principle called consistency yep right if and the short answer of the principle is this when people make a commitment they fall through with their commitment right so if you get people to commit then they do
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Mastering Client Mindsets for Better Engagement with Dr. Chris Phelps
No matter what happens, we just appreciate you for bringing us out. And then, oh, I can use that towards this thing at the end that you said I need? Yeah, of course you can. Oh, wow, thank you so much. So, again, if you were going to give them $500 off anyway, give it to them first as a gift card and then let them choose to use it for your service later.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Mastering Client Mindsets for Better Engagement with Dr. Chris Phelps
Yeah. Well, you were going to ask, like, how do you know the best gift card or amount or what to give? So one of my favorite things and one of my best promotions ever was to let other people's giveaways be my gift. Pairing what you're doing and what you could give them with other services that are not competing with you but might have value to that person is important.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Mastering Client Mindsets for Better Engagement with Dr. Chris Phelps
So for me, like I looked at the maid industry and I realized that they had competed so much on price that they were now trying to use the foot in the door strategy. They're giving away an hour to two hour cleaning of your home, hoping that you'll appreciate this reciprocity and hoping that you'll bring them back and pay them.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Mastering Client Mindsets for Better Engagement with Dr. Chris Phelps
So when I saw that with these companies, I just reached out to one of them and said, hey, I see you're giving this away. You're committed to giving this away. Can I give it away for you? Right? And they were like, well, of course. Can I promote you to people and my customers, right, my people? They're like, fantastic. Yeah, and thus was born my clean teeth, clean house promotion.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Mastering Client Mindsets for Better Engagement with Dr. Chris Phelps
Come in, and as my gift to you, we'll send somebody to clean your home on top of that. So there was nothing out of pocket for you? Zero. But I get the benefit of giving them, I call this scratch two things off your list. Wait, so I can use Tommy in A1 and not only do I get my garage door fixed, but somebody's going to clean my home? Somebody's going to do my mobile dry cleaning?
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Mastering Client Mindsets for Better Engagement with Dr. Chris Phelps
Somebody's going to bring me dinner?
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Mastering Client Mindsets for Better Engagement with Dr. Chris Phelps
So how do you protect that? I vet the heck out of them. Yeah. So I not only does the whole team gets the house cleaned, I surveyed like 10 of my patients I trust to be the beta test. And I asked them all the same question. So this actually came up with a nail salon place because I wanted to get some gift cards from different guy services versus women's services versus family things.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Mastering Client Mindsets for Better Engagement with Dr. Chris Phelps
And I'm like, well, yeah, who doesn't like getting their nails done? Women do. So I sent my team as my reciprocity gift to my team. I said, hey, ladies, I picked a place across the street. I'm buying your nails. Go get them done. And all I want to know is I told my lead assistant is, is this a place you would refer?
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Mastering Client Mindsets for Better Engagement with Dr. Chris Phelps
Whatever your criteria is, I don't know what that is because I don't know anything about nails, but would you send somebody here? So after the first place, you know, 14 of my team members, I just paid for their nails to get done. Well, so what do you think? She was like, no, not this place. Sterilization's not good. It's sketchy. We think we're going to get a fungus.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Mastering Client Mindsets for Better Engagement with Dr. Chris Phelps
The work isn't that good, and the communication was terrible. It's like, okay, so not that place. Next month, I pick another place. How was it? And she was like, no, not this place either. I'm like, Third month, I pick another place. Now I'm thinking, crap, now I'm paying for nails every month. And this one, my team member's like, this is the place.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Mastering Client Mindsets for Better Engagement with Dr. Chris Phelps
Metal sterilization bins, they actually have a sterilizer. They showed us that, building trust. This is the place we all recommend. Social proof, the consensus. All right. If the consensus says this is it, I said, don't leave. Send the other team home. Now I go and I talk to the manager and I'm like, hey, nice to meet you. I'm Dr. Phillips. I'm here to pay for my team.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Mastering Client Mindsets for Better Engagement with Dr. Chris Phelps
Well, suddenly that was my light bulb. Well, why aren't they doing in my case? What was I missing? I wasn't getting a commitment out of any of them to do anything. So I thought, all right, well, if I can change my strategy, get better commitments for my patients, for my team, for my doctors, everything should change.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Mastering Client Mindsets for Better Engagement with Dr. Chris Phelps
Let me ask you, was that a good day for you? Was that good that I brought all 14 of them here? Is that a normal day for you? And he's like, dude, this is amazing. Thank you so much. Hey, my pleasure. So I'm reminding them that I'm the one that already gave him a gift of the business.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Mastering Client Mindsets for Better Engagement with Dr. Chris Phelps
The next thing I'm going to do is use liking and praise and say, oh, and by the way, I just want you to know this is the third place my team has been. This is the only place they would refer people to. They have nothing but high. We're going to give you Google reviews. They had nothing but high things to say. So well done. Wow. Thank you so much. Hey, my pleasure.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Mastering Client Mindsets for Better Engagement with Dr. Chris Phelps
Now I'm going to ask commitment questions. Let me ask you. Could you use more new clients? Because if he said no, that's the end of the conversation. But if he says yes, you see, I'm already walking him where I want to go, right? I want him to give me the gift card for free, but I have to show him that it's not really going to cost him anything either.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Mastering Client Mindsets for Better Engagement with Dr. Chris Phelps
So now I'm like, yeah, well, are you marketing? Yes. Are you giving away as a coupon? Yes. 10% off or whatever. I was like, well, how much is that in dollars? He says, that's about five bucks. I said, okay, can I give that away for you? And he's like, what? Yeah, I want to promote you to my patients in the future and past. Doesn't matter. Can I give this away for you as a gift card?
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Mastering Client Mindsets for Better Engagement with Dr. Chris Phelps
And he's like, that's amazing. Thank you.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Mastering Client Mindsets for Better Engagement with Dr. Chris Phelps
In this case, it was a $5 one because that's what he was already giving away. I get the benefit of the gift for the patient and the reciprocity that generates. The business wins because it only costs them when the person shows. And I want, in my mind, now the customer wins because it really is a fantastic experience. This is a place we really believe in people should go.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Mastering Client Mindsets for Better Engagement with Dr. Chris Phelps
I keep beating the – so here's the best way to get a review. The commitment. It's going to be a commitment, but truly it starts with reciprocity. So when we think of reciprocity and gifts, we think of physical, tangible things you give somebody, like the gift card or cash or whatever. What's actually even more powerful are the intangible gifts you give people.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Mastering Client Mindsets for Better Engagement with Dr. Chris Phelps
Your time, listening to them, that empathy like your mom did on the phone, that's a gift to people who don't normally receive that. A favor, right? Things you can't quite put your hand on, but these to me are the most powerful gifts. And so when you know you've given somebody something like this,
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Mastering Client Mindsets for Better Engagement with Dr. Chris Phelps
When they genuinely thank you or praise you for what you did, when they didn't have to, even if it meant nothing to you and even if they just paid you for it, what they're trying to tell you is they still feel obligated to do something else. So a lady comes in my practice. I squeeze her in during lunch. She had broke her front tooth. I had the whole thing fixed, looked phenomenal in 20 minutes.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Mastering Client Mindsets for Better Engagement with Dr. Chris Phelps
No shots, no pain. I was happy. She paid my full fee. I thought we were done. I'm walking out. She stops me. She goes, no, seriously, you don't know what you did for me today. What do you mean? She goes, I'm in real estate and I make my money off closings. And I was so embarrassed by my front tooth breaking off that I was going to have to cancel my three closings this afternoon. until next month.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Mastering Client Mindsets for Better Engagement with Dr. Chris Phelps
And I called other dental offices and they couldn't get me in for two weeks. You got me in today. Because my headline was, call today, get in today. I lived up to it. No pain. She goes, this is the best experience I've ever had. Of course, I'm looking at the front like, she didn't pay, right? That's all I needed. But the act was, she still, it wasn't enough. She wanted to do something.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Mastering Client Mindsets for Better Engagement with Dr. Chris Phelps
So I was like, well, yeah, you're welcome. Would you mind helping me out? Would you mind doing a five-star Google review? That would go, telling that story would really help us out here. And literally two minutes later, Google alert hits. Boom. New review. Thanks, Cindy.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Mastering Client Mindsets for Better Engagement with Dr. Chris Phelps
So listen for these intangible gifts. When you give this service, you're already giving it away. You've already done it. Yep. So strike while the influence iron's hot because especially if they're older, there might be a barrier. They may not know how to do it. Right.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Mastering Client Mindsets for Better Engagement with Dr. Chris Phelps
Yep. So if you're my mom who's 74, no way in hell is she doing that on her phone. Yep. Unless you help her. Now, if today's not the moment, this is where the commitment comes in. Two questions you got to ask. Hey, so when you go to do that review later, are you going to do that on your phone or a laptop or desktop computer? This or that, choose.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Mastering Client Mindsets for Better Engagement with Dr. Chris Phelps
Automatically, by answering the question, they're making more of a voluntary commitment, they're more likely to do it. I'll do it on my phone. Okay, great. What would make this convenient or easier for you? Should I send you a text link to do it or would you prefer an email? Oh, I need a text. I don't check emails or whatever. Oh, great. Then I'll send you a text. Thank you so much.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Mastering Client Mindsets for Better Engagement with Dr. Chris Phelps
Oh, you're welcome. And if possible, the last piece of the puzzle is, oh, by the way, here's a little postcard or a Google five-star sticker or something like that. Thank you so much. Like we slip it in their hygiene bag.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Mastering Client Mindsets for Better Engagement with Dr. Chris Phelps
Yeah. So with the team, it was more realizing there's two aspects of it. Number one, I needed to be able to influence them, not tell them. Nobody likes to be told anything. We learned that at an early age. So that's why when the cat's away, the mice will play. When you tell, when you coerce, when you intimidate, when you force people into something or they feel backed into a corner.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Mastering Client Mindsets for Better Engagement with Dr. Chris Phelps
So when they get home that night because they've been distracted all day and hadn't time to do it and probably forgot about you, when they drop out their toothbrush and toothpaste from that bag, what comes out? Thank you for your five-star review. With a QR code that can take them right there when they actually have the time to do it. Make it convenient.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Mastering Client Mindsets for Better Engagement with Dr. Chris Phelps
Remind them of the commitment that they made is the last piece. Maybe that's a text later. Hey, if I don't see it, can I text you later? Can I email you later? Whatever. But find some way, get permission to follow up and remind them of that commitment.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Mastering Client Mindsets for Better Engagement with Dr. Chris Phelps
Geez, there's so many books. Well... Books that have impacted me, anything by Cialdini, my trifecta of mentors, anything by Dan Sullivan is critical. In my mind, nobody understands the mindset of the entrepreneur better than him and everything that he preaches is gold. And something most people may not know about, a book from Kathy Colby, another Phoenix resident, by the way. K-O-L-B-E.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Mastering Client Mindsets for Better Engagement with Dr. Chris Phelps
You've heard of personality tests and assessments and IQ tests. Well, Colby measures a completely different part of your mind and who you are. And it's set by the time you're age seven, it doesn't change your entire life. So when it comes to team management, communication, I haven't found anything objectively better because it actually gives me predictive value.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Mastering Client Mindsets for Better Engagement with Dr. Chris Phelps
And now I got something I can work with for today and tomorrow. So anything by Kathy Colby, those three, they were instrumental to my business success. I love this.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Mastering Client Mindsets for Better Engagement with Dr. Chris Phelps
Yeah. I mean, obviously, we didn't talk about too much marketing. But all this affects marketing, right? Every bit of it. It's kind of interesting. You know, I did a direct mail piece, and I ran it to the same list of people for 10 years. Had a company design it for me, and I got a good return. It was great.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Mastering Client Mindsets for Better Engagement with Dr. Chris Phelps
Um, but after I learned these principles and after I learned how to apply them and amplify these things, um, I went back and finally stopped being lazy and I stripped down that direct mail piece and myself and I rebuilt it and tried to add as many of the influence principles as I could. Authority, social proof, the welcoming, liking, uh, scarcity messaging in there.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Mastering Client Mindsets for Better Engagement with Dr. Chris Phelps
Uh, you're not going to get them all in, but as many as you feasibly could in an And I literally sent it out to the same list I've been mailing to for 10 years. Doubled the new patient count. So no matter what you're doing, if you haven't added any level of influence, all you have to do is add one thing and send it right back out to the same people and you'll get a better response.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Mastering Client Mindsets for Better Engagement with Dr. Chris Phelps
When you give them choice and you influence them properly, when the cat's away, the mice don't play. They do what you had influenced them to do. So I knew, to use an example, I pictured like I was going to go bowling with my team. And as the owner of the business, as the visionary, I had to pick the lane. I didn't want to be on lane one and my team's bowling on lane four.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Mastering Client Mindsets for Better Engagement with Dr. Chris Phelps
And the more of those things you can add and find to add, you only got one way to go.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Mastering Client Mindsets for Better Engagement with Dr. Chris Phelps
That's not going to help me or my patients. But we're all on lane one. And of course, I've got the goals set. So I'm going to pick the pins. But they need to have some control of the process. They need to be involved with it. If they're not, they fight it.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Mastering Client Mindsets for Better Engagement with Dr. Chris Phelps
So even if it's just simple, they make one little change to make it slightly more convenient for them or more efficient for them or whatever, you automatically get more of a commitment from them in the process. So I knew I had to give them choices, right? So what size ball do you want? 8 pounds, 10 pounds, 12? What size holes do you want? Small, medium, large?
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Mastering Client Mindsets for Better Engagement with Dr. Chris Phelps
You want a ball left-handed, right-handed, granny style? Up to you. As long as the ball goes down the lane and knocks the pins, I didn't care. So it's a two-part system of their instinctive nature is, number one, I had to clearly define the vision of what I wanted, right?
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Mastering Client Mindsets for Better Engagement with Dr. Chris Phelps
The second thing is, and this is what's important and what a lot of people skip, they immediately go into telling, right? Well, I went into justifying. If you don't give them enough facts and objective details to justify the change, it's going to be a lot harder for them to instinctively do that. Or they'll do it, again, while you're watching, but it's not consistent while you're gone.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Mastering Client Mindsets for Better Engagement with Dr. Chris Phelps
But if they know the context of why and the justification... automatically they're more likely to continue doing. So I had to do that. I had to justify that why. As I said, I had to ask their permission. They had to voluntarily commit. So once I justified why, I asked them a simple question. And this is a simple influence question you should ask anybody you're going to work with.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Mastering Client Mindsets for Better Engagement with Dr. Chris Phelps
How many of you agree with me that this is a problem? Okay. Looks like all the hands are up. Great. Who's going to help me solve it? Because if the hands don't go up, what that tells me is that's okay. They see an elephant in the room. Well, instead of hiding from it, let's talk about it now. Because if I don't, that's going to be a landmine that sabotages this thing down the road.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Mastering Client Mindsets for Better Engagement with Dr. Chris Phelps
If all the hands go up, great. Now they're voluntarily committed to helping me get this done. And you automatically have a better chance. get them involved with that process. So, hey, what's your role gonna be in this? Here's some pen and paper because studies show when what you write down, you tend to live up to, right? So you get it out of their head and let's put it on paper.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Mastering Client Mindsets for Better Engagement with Dr. Chris Phelps
What's your part gonna be in this change, helping us reach this goal, whatever that is. And they have to see you're a part of the process too. So I'm writing my stuff down. Here's what I think I can do to help you guys or directly or indirectly get to the goal or make this change.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Mastering Client Mindsets for Better Engagement with Dr. Chris Phelps
And now we use this aspect of consistency, which is getting public commitments out of people, which is extremely powerful. So everybody going around the room saying, all right, Tommy, what are you going to do? What's your role going to be? Let's tell everybody. Great. Now let's ask for feedback from everybody else. Does anybody else have any ideas for Tommy? Here's what I think you could do.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Mastering Client Mindsets for Better Engagement with Dr. Chris Phelps
Write that down. Okay, great. Let's go to the next person. And then I tell them what I think I could do. And I get their feedback. Great, I can do that. Sure. Now we've all written it down. I get them to sign it and then... Sign it. I love it. Yeah, because now they're committed. They know what their responsibilities are. They're signing that this is what they're going to do.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Mastering Client Mindsets for Better Engagement with Dr. Chris Phelps
And you get your most creative, collaborative person on the team. We make a collage of it and we post it. Because what every study on consistency shows is... this, right? We all know by definition, you know, why do people do commitments? Why do they fall through with the commitments?
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Mastering Client Mindsets for Better Engagement with Dr. Chris Phelps
Well, it's because they don't want to be perceived as being inconsistent in their stated thoughts, actions, and beliefs, right? There's no good word for people who don't do what they say they're going to do routinely. Liars, for instance, is not a good word, right? So there's this external influence on us to not be like that.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Mastering Client Mindsets for Better Engagement with Dr. Chris Phelps
At the same time, there's an internal influence, which is why it's powerful. It's two sources. You don't want to look at yourself in that capacity, right? So nobody wants to be inconsistent. But we all know people who say and do things but don't follow through. Were they all liars? Were they all intending to fool us or mislead us? Well, the truth is the studies show that's not the case.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Mastering Client Mindsets for Better Engagement with Dr. Chris Phelps
Most good people, it's an I got time problem is the mindset. They really intended to do it, but as time goes on, guess where you go when a thousand other things pop up into their life?
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Mastering Client Mindsets for Better Engagement with Dr. Chris Phelps
Exactly. So now they're thinking, in their mind, they do intend to get to it, but the reality is they never will. So it looks like it never happens. So the way to combat this, what the studies show, was you just got to remind them of the commitment that they made, constantly reminding them of that commitment. So I post it where they see it every day.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Mastering Client Mindsets for Better Engagement with Dr. Chris Phelps
So it's the first thing they see when they walk in to the business. And it reminds them, ooh, this is the priority, and this is my part in this and what I need to get done. And the last piece of it is I got to get them to do a majority wins vote on not how long it's going to take us to reach this goal, but how long is it going to – I'm going to use scarcity and limit the time.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Mastering Client Mindsets for Better Engagement with Dr. Chris Phelps
How much time does it really take for us to start making progress towards this, to start taking action? And because ultimately, because people are built, they're a tortoise or a hare when it comes to change. Some can change on the dime, right? Others, they might get there, but it looks like they're not getting there. They just need more time before they're gonna change, because they resist change.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Mastering Client Mindsets for Better Engagement with Dr. Chris Phelps
They don't adapt to it quickly. So I have to give my team the commitment and allow them to choose their timeline for change of when we're gonna start. Once I've gotten all those commitments, I can get out of the way. You push the ball over the top of the hill and just let the momentum take its place.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Mastering Client Mindsets for Better Engagement with Dr. Chris Phelps
Yeah. So with clients, again, commitment's a big part of it, but really you need the best one-two punch. You need persuasion and you need persuasion.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Mastering Client Mindsets for Better Engagement with Dr. Chris Phelps
So persuasion is about which of Cialdini's seven principles are present in a situation that you could tap into, bring to the surface in your communication attempts that automatically is going to influence that person to receive your message in a totally different light and be more willing to say yes to it, okay?
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Mastering Client Mindsets for Better Engagement with Dr. Chris Phelps
Pre-suasion is what principles are present and other things that you can tap into that happen before they get to you in that moment. So outside of this moment, that changes their mindset. So pre-suasion is all about reshaping mindsets. Because one of the things I didn't realize was that just how powerful mindsets are and how much that was hurting, yes.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Mastering Client Mindsets for Better Engagement with Dr. Chris Phelps
This, well, think of it this way. So like the example I always give is let's say I have a new patient that came to my business for the first time and she's there 30 minutes early, right? Do her paperwork, whatever. Well, she just gets off the phone, having a knockdown, drag out, tearful fight with her husband. Okay. Divorce on the horizon. Not sure what's going to happen with the kids. It's ugly.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Mastering Client Mindsets for Better Engagement with Dr. Chris Phelps
She hangs up. She's here. She cleans herself up because she's there for the appointment. She has a good experience. And I come in and talk about her dental needs. Where's her mindset at right now? Is it in her mouth at all or is it in that car?
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Mastering Client Mindsets for Better Engagement with Dr. Chris Phelps
Right. So that's what I realized was that in any given situation, when a potential person with sales or whatnot, or in my case, patients are coming into this moment, they're all coming in with a mindset already established. And if you don't do anything to refocus that mindset based on what you want to talk about and get them to recommit to do value statements based on what you want to talk about,
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Mastering Client Mindsets for Better Engagement with Dr. Chris Phelps
then the mindset they're coming in with is directly competing with what you want to talk about or distracting them from what you want to talk about. And in both cases, the door to yes is already shut. And unless it's a top of mind pain situation, it's hard to get it back open. So how do you do that? Well, so there's all kinds of things that affect our mindset, right?
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Mastering Client Mindsets for Better Engagement with Dr. Chris Phelps
The good news is they're fickle little things, okay? You can reshape them as needed. So one of my favorite things to do is, of course, you can change the context of their environment. So the sights, the sounds, the smells around them can change that mindset.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Mastering Client Mindsets for Better Engagement with Dr. Chris Phelps
So, for instance, if I've got somebody who may be coming in as a new patient and they're uncertain about their situation, it can look like a standard medical reception office or it could look like you just walked into somebody's living room. Little fireplace there, pictures of all the teams and their families all over the place. So you get that sense of, wow, this is like a home.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Mastering Client Mindsets for Better Engagement with Dr. Chris Phelps
This is not a medical reception office. That doesn't seem right. The smells, right? They have a smell now called the Disney smell for a reason because it creates a mindset. Like in our world, do you want to come in and smell like – if you're like a 70-year-old patient, let's say, they had bad experiences with dental offices as kids and there's something in our industry we call the dental smell.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Mastering Client Mindsets for Better Engagement with Dr. Chris Phelps
And it's a very unique thing that if you say that to most older people, they know exactly what you're talking about. It's the kind of smell that just sticks to you no matter where you go for days. Well, if you come into an office as a new patient and you're 70 and you smell that, you're going to flash back to all those negative experiences.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Mastering Client Mindsets for Better Engagement with Dr. Chris Phelps
Versus if you come into the office and it smells like fresh-baked chocolate chip cookies. Huh. Now, I don't know about you, but when I grew up, cookies came out of a bag. But on special days when grandma was there or mom was in a good mood, right out of the oven. So again, family is the mindset I'm trying to create in that moment.