Reputation is perhaps the most valuable commodity that any individual can collect.
It’s priceless.
The problem with reputation is that it takes years or decades to develop a good reputation and it is a very fragile thing. Many have attempted, through advertising, media and other means, to fast track the process of reputation development but it’s almost impossible and, certainly in my business, absolutely unachievable over the short term.
I believe that we’ve managed to create a reputation for providing good service and good quality but the difficulty with that situation is that it becomes a rod for your own back; something that must be worked on day after day after day. It creates situations where decisions become difficult.
I am extremely clear in my mind that our most valuable asset is the reputation we have as a business and a practice – both amongst the patients that we see who recommend many of their friends and family to us and also among the clinicians from whom we are so lucky and privileged to receive referrals.
It’s essential however that everybody who works with us and for us understands that our reputation is the most important thing and anytime we disappoint a supplier, a patient or a referring practitioner we lose part of that reputation which was so difficult to gain and so easy to throw away.
Qualifications, letters after your name, positions held, titles – none of this leads to reputation. These are merely keys that open the door to allow you to provide services and facilities and treatment for people which may in turn (if done properly) lead to a positive reputation being achieved but it does not fast track the decades of work that it takes.
In a society where all we need to do is swipe right to get a date with a partner or go on to Amazon to buy almost anything that can be here the following day for free, neither of these mediums will allow us to achieve a reputation and over the long, long term it’s the only winning strategy that counts.
Blog Post Number: 1188
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